BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 

•o 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


REPLY 


OF 


GEN.  THOMAS  J.  GREEN, 


TO    THE 


SPEECH 


OF 


GENERAL  SAM  HOUSTON, 


IN   THE 


SENATE    OF    THE    UNITED    STATES, 


AUGUST  1,  1854. 


F 


WASHINGTON  CITY,  February  15#A,  1855. 

To  THE  HONORABLE  SENATE 

OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  : 

About  the  close  of  the  last  session  of  your  honorable  body, 
and  whilst  I  was  in  Texas  zealously  advocating  the  building  of 
the  Southern  Pacific  railroad,  Sam  Houston,  one  of  the  Senators 
from  that  State,  under  his  senatorial  privilege,  made  an  as- 
sault upon  my  character,  so  maliciously  false,  yea,  without  a 
shadow  of  foundation  in  truth,  that  it  requires  a  present  notice 
from  me.  He  made  a  formal  request  of  the  Senate,  which  was 
granted,  to  meet  at  an  earlier  hour  than  usual  the  next  day,  to 
afford  him  the  opportunity  of  calumniating  a  private  citizen 
from  his  senatorial  desk;  and  consequently  to  have  that 
calumny  propagated  through  the  journals  and  printing  patron- 
age of  the  Senate — thereby  making  the  Senate  the  ostentatious 
endorser  of  the  vilest  tissue  of  falsehoods  which  ever  found 
their  way  to  public  notice  through  such  a  channel.  It  is  plain 
that  with  these  meretricious  advantages,  and  the  further  sena- 
torial privilege  of  having  reporters  to  reduce  his  bombast  to 
readable  grammar,  and  that  printed  and  franked  throughout 
the  country,  a  private  citizen,  with  both  truth  and  justice  upon 
his  side,  must  appear  to  disadvantage. 

It  is  indeed  painful  to  question  the  justice  or  policy  of  the 
Senate,  in  any  particular  ;  but  when  your  high  body  sits  day 
after  day  as  a  shield  to  a  mendacious  colleague,  to  pour  forth 
his  slanders  against  myself  and  others,  which,  if  uttered  by 
him  outside  the  Senate  walls  would  not  be  credited  by  his 
vilest  sychophant,  is,  I  trust,  a  sufficient  reason  for  my  protest- 
ing against  the  use  of  a  prerogative  thus  abused.  This  quarrel 
between  Senator  Houston  and  myself,  which  has  been  so  offi- 
cially dignified,  has  nothing  to  do  with  his  senatorial  duties. 


It  was  of  foreign  birth  and  growth,  of  many  years'  standing 
before  the  days  of  Texas  annexation.  What  I  then  said  of  him 
was  openly  said,  upon  the  stump,  through  the  press,  and  from 
my  place  in  the  Congress,  of  the  Republic.  That  every  thing 
I  said  of  him  was  believed  by  the  intelligent  and  honest,  is 
clear,  or  this  new  attempt  to  divert  merited  odium  at  this  par- 
ticular time,  would  hardly  have  been  made.  If  I  have  said 
any  thing  against  his  official  conduct  since  annexation,  it  has 
been  in  common  with  the  people  of  the  South,  and  the  general 
sentiment  of  Texas,  to  denounce  his  abolition  treason  to  a  sec- 
tion which  delegated  to  him  her  security  and  political  equality. 
This  right  belongs  as  much  to  Senator  Houston's  deceived  and 
betrayed  constituency,  as  does  that  of  his  new  abolition  allies, 
to  reward  and  praise  his  treason.  Had  the  Senator  have  asked 
for  a  committee  to  investigate  the  many  charges,  which,  in 
most  of  the  States  of  the  Union,  would  secure  him  a 
life  tenure  in  a  penitentiary,  I  should  have  been  saved  the 
trouble  of  thus  appearing  before  the  public.  With  all  his  pen- 
chant for  committees  of  investigation,  this  he  dare  not  do ;  and 
having  no  voice  in  your  honorable  body,  I  claim  the  glorious 
privilege  of  an  American  citizen,  to  vindicate  before  the  pub- 
lic that  which  I  hold  far  more  dear  than  life — my  honor. 

The  sequel  will  show,  that  there  are  reasons  which  lie  far 
deeper  than  appears  upon  the  surface,  for  the  Senator's  attack 
upon  me  at  this  time.  He  knows  full  well  that  I  have  the 
proofs  of  his  many  crimes — personal  and  political — with  the 
honesty  and  boldness  to  make  them  known ;  and  he  was  in- 
formed that  the  proper  occasion  for  this  would  be  when  his 
treasonable  insolence  to  that  section  of  the  Union  which  gave 
him  life  and  bread,  would  cause  him  to  talk  seriously  of  being 
the  Presidential  candidate  of  the  abolitionists.  To  break  the 
force  of  my  testimony,  by  the  most  calumnious  and  stupid 
falsehoods,  was  his  real,  while  his  ostensible  object  was,  that 
my  history  of  the  "  Mier  Expedition"  was  in  the  Congress 
library.  President  Polk  requested  the  first  copies  of  this  work 
issued  from  the  press,  for  the  use  of  himself  and  Cabinet. 
It  contained  information  of  Texas  and  Mexico,  then  new,  and 
for  which  I  received  the  thanks  of  the  President  and  other 
officers  of  the  government.  It  has  been  in  the  Congress 


library  for  the  last  nine  years ;  was  generally  read,  and  as 
.generally  believed  ;  and  which  the  concurrent  testimony  of  all 
my  comrades  in  that  sanguinary  campaign,  will  bear  witness  to 
its  truth.  I  do  here  most  solemnly  avow,  that  I  have  not,  in 
said  work,  made  a  solitary  charge  upon  General  Houston,  either 
directly  or  by  implication,  which  is  not  strictly  true.  This  the 
Senator,  as  well  as  the  most  intelligent  men  of  Texas,  know, 
and  which  I  will  prove  by  the  most  incontestible  evidence ; 
and  while  the  extensive  circulation  of  this  work,  together  with 
its  cost,  is  beyond  the  ability  of  him  or  his  sycophants  to  sup- 
press, he  resorts  to  this  mode  of  destroying  it.  His  efforts  so 
far,  have  greatly  increased  the  public  desire  to  read  it ;  and  for 
his  pains,  I  promise  that  the  next  edition  will  contain  a  more 
full  length  portrait  of  himself.  Should  it  not  prove  true  to 
life,  language  wilLbe  deficient  in  showing  np  those  monstrous 
immoralities  which  constitute  his  life-time  of  iniquity ;  of 
fraud  and  falsehood  ;  of  impiety  and  hypocrisy ;  of  inebriety, 
bestiality,  and  villainy — all  of  which  he  attempts  to  palm 
upon  the  public  as  "eecenfoio&y,  tact,  coquetry"  I  own  that 
this  is  severe  language,  and  sincerely  regret  the  necessity  for 
its  use — if  it  were  less  severe,  it  would  be  less  true. 

Gen.  Houston's  "  eccentricity,  tact,  and  coquetry,"  have  re- 
cently caused  him  to  pitch  into  Abolitionism,  Know-Nothing- 
ism,  and  Baptism.  As  poor  an  opinion  as  I  entertain  of  the 
first-named  of  these  isms,  I  am  slow  to  believe  of  that  sect,  that 
their  political  astuteness  would  readily  receive  into  leading 
membership  this  Benedict  Arnold,  black  with  treason  to  that 
section  which  gave  him  birth, — in  comparison  to  which  the 
treason  of  Burr  is  exalted  patriotism, — the  betrayal  T)y  Judas 
•of  the  Son  of  Peace,  an  excusable  weakness. 

It  would  be  a  gross  slander  upon  the  intelligence  of  the 
great  Know-Nothing  party,  to  suppose  that  he  could  pack  him- 
self upon  them  for  any  thing  except  one — untrue  to  every  moral 
obligation,  personal  and  political.  But  a  short  time  since,  the 
senator  made  a  speech  to  some  Irish  regiments  in  the  New- 
York  Park,  in  which  he  "  thanked  'God  that  every  drop  of 
Uood  which  circulated  through  his  heart  was  Irish"  Is  this 
the  blood  of  Know-Nothings ;  or  do  his  new  peans  to  that  party 
:suit  the  Irish  regiments  f  Does  Ms  .common  slander  of  the 


6 

American  people  for  the  last  twenty  years,  and  his  praises  of 
the  faithless  Indian,  suit  them  better  ?  Even  now,  when  his 
own  state  for  hundreds  of  miles  is  bleeding  from  the  scalping- 
knife  of  his  red  brethren,  and  that  state  at  this  time  has  taken 
from  the  plough  six  companies  of  her  own  citizens  to  assist  the 
United  States  army  in  stopping  the  work  of  the  tomahawk, 
the  senator  prates  for  days,  in  and  out  of  the  senate,  of  Indian 
honesty  and  humanity.  For  his  leap  into  the  Brasos,  under 
the  sanctity  of  Baptism,  there  are  other  reasons,  of  which  we 
will  speak  hereafter.  Such  a  leap  would  defile  Jordan  itself, 
without  purifying  his  soul,  or  even  imposing  upon  the  true 
piety  of  the  respected  Church  to  which  he  has  attached  him- 
self; and  in  vain  may  he  elongate  his  face  to  a  Puritanical 
measure,  and  continue  to  drawl  his  words  to  a  ghostly  intona- 
tion, he  will  not  be  believed.  (Aristotle,  the  wise  preceptor 
of  Alexander  the  Great,  says,  "  Show  me  a  man  who  drawls 
his  words,  and  I  will  show  you  a  scoundrel"  I  believe  that 
in  the  whole  of  my  large  experience  of  mankind  I  never  knew 
this  saying  falsified.)  Yes,  he  may  Gloster-like,  with 

"a  book  of  prayer  in  hand, 
True  ornaments  to  know  a  holy  man," 

make  pilgrimages  the  balance  of  his  life  between  the  Baptist 
of  the  Brasos,  and  the  Abolitionist  of  the  Canada  shore,  with- 
out convincing  them  that  this  treason  and  hypocrisy  was  for 
any  other  purpose  than  to  gull  their  numerous  voters.  Such 
an  attempt  at  this  late  day,  when  his  head  is  frosted  with  three 
score  years  of  crime,  is  an  insult  to  our  political  intelligence, 
and  the  quintessence  of  a  brutal  impudence. 

The  first  purpose  of  this  communication  is  to  prove  to  your 
honorable  body,  and  the  world,  the  utter  falsity  of  every  charge, 
and  every  inuendo,  contained  in  the  senator's  magniloquent 
tirade ;  and  next,  to  give  the  true  reasons  for  this  attack  upon 
me  at  this  late  day,  interspersed  with  necessary  remarks  of 
himself. 

Ex-President  David  G.  Burnett,  than  whom  a  more  truthful, 
talented,  or  purer  patriot  never  labored  for  liberty,  in  his 
review  of  the  life  of  Houston,  page  6,  says,  that  "  Gen.  Hous- 
ton has  long  and  habitually  acted  on  the  Spanish  proverb, 
that  '  a  lie  that  can  gain  belief  for  one  hour  is  worth  the  tell- 


ing?  "  If  tlie  reporter  of  the  New  Orleans  Picayune,  and  others 
present,  reported  his  speech  truly,  he  seems  to  have  screwed  his 
courage  up  to  promising  the  senate  that  he  would  give  me  per- 
sonal satisfaction.  "Whether  this  promise,  for  even  one  hour, 
gulled  a  solitary  senator  of  the  half  dozen  who  listened  to  him,  is 
doubtful ;  if  so,  it  was  more  than  he  accomplished  with  any 
who  knew  him  well,  and  certainly  myself. 

Acting,  however,  upon  the  opinion  of  friends  who  thought 
that  it  was  due  to  the  Senate,  I  wrote  to  my  friend,  the  Hon. 
Branch  T.  Archer,  to  call  upon  him  to  redeem  his  promise. 
Before,  however,  my  friend  could  see  the  senator,  he  had  taken 
leave  of  all  worldly  promises  by  his  hypocritical  submersion 
in  the  Brasos,  hoping,  doubtless,  thereby  that  he  could  also  se- 
cure the  vote  of  the  Baptist. 

The  puerile  whining  in  his  pamphlet  speech,  about  his- 
"  two  crushed  limbs,"  would  be  laughable  in  a  superannuated 
old  woman.  The  two  flesh-wound  scratches  he  received,  the 
one  upon  his  arm  and  the  other  upon  his  leg,  would  not  have 
made  a  man  of  ordinary  nerve  lay  up  an  hour ;  though  the 
first  was  the  pretext  of  his  deserting  the  brave  Jackson,  in  the 
Creek  nation,  who  conducted  the  whole  of  that  eventful  cam- 
paign with  his  right  arm  broken  and  in  a  sling ;  the  other  the 
pretext  for  his  deserting  the  army  in  Texas  and  going  off  to 
New  Orleans  and  Tennessee,  exhibiting  Santa  Anna's  gold- 
headed  cane,  spurs  <md  saddle,  which  he  had  taken  from  the 
captive's  personal  effects.  After  the  battle  of  Cannae,  in  an 
age  when  writing  was  difficult,  the  illustrious  conqueror  sent 
a  sack  of  rings  taken  from  the  fingers  of  the  slain  Roman 
Knights,  to  the  Carthaginian  Senate,  not  as  a  trophy  of  vic- 
tory, but  to  insure  a  vote  for  new  supplies.  The  means  was 
worthy  of  the  object  intended  to  be  accomplished.  What  a 
contrast !  In  this  enlightened  age  for  an  American  Com- 
mander in  Chief  to  be  hawking  about  the  personal  apparel  of 
a  captive  Chief;  and  after  satisfying  his  vainglory,  which 
ought  to  have  shamed  an  untatooed  Indian,  he  sold  the  saddle 
to  Colonel  William  Christie,  of  New  Orleans,  as  I  was  informed 
by  himself,  for  five  hundred  dollars.  What  the  Senator  did 
with  the  cane,  spurs,  and  thousand  dollar  snuff-box,  which  he 


8 

subsequently  swindled  Santa  Anna  out  of,  and  of  which  I  have 
more  to  say  hereafter,  I  do  not  know. 

There  are  numerous  anecdotes  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
Senator  squalled  when  the  arrow  struck  him  upon  his  arm  at 
the  battle  of  the  "  Horse-Shoe."  The  gallant  old  Col.  John  C. 
Nail,  who  commanded  a  company  in  that  action,  certified  that 
he  "Heated  like  a  cub"  and  that  his  commanding  Colonel, 
John  Williams,  rode  up  at  the  time  and  damned  at  him  for 
his  cowardice,  which  is  the  secret  of  Houston's  slandering  the 
memory  of  that  distinguished  gentleman  to  this  day.  I  refer 
to  the  Hon.  Joseph  L.  Williams,  of  Washington  city,  for  the 
truth  of  this  incident.  The  Senator's  cowardice  and  alarm, 
after  receiving  the  scratch  upon  his  ankle  at  San  Jacinto,  has 
been  attested  by  nearly  every  officer,  and  most  of  the  men. 
President  Burnett,  in  his  review  of  the  life  of  Houston,rpages 
11  and  12,  says  : — "  About  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  the 
Texian  army  was  paraded.  Col.  Wharton  arranged  the  order 
of  battle,  and  they  marched  with  alacrity  to  the  onset.  Gen. 
Houston,  with  a  tolerable  bearing  (he  chewed  opium  in  those 
days),  rode  in  front  of  the  line,  until  within  about  four  hundred 
yards,  when  he  wheeled  his  horse  half  round  and  hollowed  out, 

*  Present  and  fire.'    By  previous  concert,  the  officers  of  the 
line  had  determined  to  reserve  their  fire  until  they  could  see 

*  the  white  of  the  enemies'  eyes,'  and  when  the  hasty  order 
was  given,  the  word  rushed  along  the  line,  <  hold  on  ~boys — hold 
your  fire — rush  ahead.7     Houston  advanced,  and  when  within 
about  two  hundred  yards  he  again,  and  in  evident  agitation, 

bawled  out,  £  God  Almighty  d n  you,  ain't  you  going  to 

f-i-r-e  ?'    The  same  cheering  words  passed  along  the  line  ;  the 
fire  was  reserved,  and  Houston  moved  off  to  the  right  wing  of 
the  army.     Houston  was  soon  afterwards  wounded  in  the  foot 
or  ankle,  but  I  believe  rather  slightly.     He  made  then  and 
afterwards  a  huge  fuss  about  it.    A  calf  will  bellow  at  the 
prick  of  a  bodkin.     As  soon  as  the  ball  struck  him  he  screamed 
out,  { Halt  !  halt !  your  General  is  wounded  /  Coss  has  come 
up  •  all  is  lost.7     But  that  army  did  not  halt.     Several  of  the 
officers  called  upon  Gen.  Rusk,  the  Secretary  of  War,  who  was 
then  in  the  field,  to  take  command  and  push  ahead.     Captain 
Turner,  commanding  the  only  company  of  regulars  present, 


was  detailed  to  take  charge  of  the  wounded  General,  and  the 
rest  drove  on  the  brief  battle  to  a  noble  victory.  Gen.  Hous- 
ton never  advanced  one  step  after  he  was  wounded ;  but  he 
manifested  a  goodly  portion  of  trepidation  as  the  tide  of  battle 
rolled  from  him."  The  evidence  is  ample,  both  from  the  late 
Adjutant-General  John  A.  Wharton  and  other  officers,  that 
Gen.  Busk,  the  Secretary  of  War,  did  give  the  onward  order, 
and  he  himself  was  amongst  the  foremost  in  that  glorious 
charge,  which  resulted  in  triumph.  Whilst  the  bravery  of 
Gen.  Busk  is  more  than  equalled  by  his  modesty,  these  facts 
belong  to  truthful  history,  and  are  the  common  property  of  the 
country.  But,  to  Senator  Houston's  speech. 

In  his  very  commencement  he  overacts  the  Spanish  pro- 
verb. With  the  evidence  before  his  eyes,  he  commences  his 
speech  with  a  falsehood — by  a  willful  misnomer  of  the  title  of 
my  work.  I  never  wrote  such  a  work  as  a  "  History  of  Texas, 
Mexico,  and  the  United  States."  His  garbled  quotations,  from 
my  work  entitled  the  "  Mier  Expedition"  to  be  fully  under- 
stood, must  carry  with  them  both  their  antecedents  and 
sequence,  which  in  every  instance  completes  the  proof  of  all 
that  I  have  asserted.  If,  however,  such  evidence  appear  any- 
wise unsatisfactory,  I  will  supply  additional  proofs. 

The  Senator,  in  the  second  paragraph  of  his  speech,  says 
that  in  my  work  of  four  hundred  and  eighty-four  pages,  he 
finds  his  name  recorded  "  one  hundred  and  seventeen  times" 
This  may  or  may  not  be  so.  I  have  not  taken  the  pains  to 
ascertain  its  truth,  nor  is  it  important  whether  true  or  false. 
If  it  be  true,  this  follows,  that  I  had  to  use  his  name  thus  often 
to  prove  that  which  I  charged  upon  him,  which  had  immediate 
connection  with  the  main  object  of  the  book ;  but  that  his 
name  has  been  used  maliciously  or  untruly,  is  wholly  false. 
Had  I  have  been  pleased  to  use  it  maliciously,  or  to  have  gone 
into  a  detail  of  the  Senator's  'life  and  doings,  seventeen  thou- 
sand times  the  use  of  his  name  would  not  have  recorded  the 
enormities  of  his  past  career — his  vulgar  blackguardism — his 
vile  debaucheries — his  universal  mendacity — his  numerous 
perjuries — his  personal  swindles — his.  official  peculations — his 
annexations  coquetry — his  want  of  faith,  and  treason  to  politi- 
cal parties — his  hypocrisy,  impiety,  and  opium  eating — his 


10 

desertion  of  western  Texas,  and  leaving  it  open  to  the  Mexican 
enemy — his  dastardly  cowardice — his  dirty  polygamy  an.d  de- 
sertion of  his  former  wives,  with  his  pagan  brutality  to  some 
of  them  and  their  young. 

The  same  paragraph  also  makes  the  lamented  Gen.  Stephen 
F.  Austin  the  subject  of  eulogy.  This  eleventh  hour  tribute 
comes  most  ungraciously.  This  deceased  patriot,  who  we  de- 
fended, before  his  death,  against  the  Senator's  slanders,  passed 
from  earth  more  than  eighteen  years  ago.  He  carried  with 
him  the  regrets  of  every  honest  man  in  Texas,  and  has  now  a 
warm  place  in  their  memories.  But,  in  the  most  eventful 
period  of  the  Texas  strife,  during  the  summer  of  1836,  it  is 
well  known  by  hundreds  in  Texas,  that  Gen.  Houston  lay 
drunk  for  months,  at  the  house  of  his  land  partner,  Mr.  Phil. 
Sublet,  in  eastern  Texas,  swearing  that  he  would  hang  this 
same  General  Austin  as  a  traitor.  Gen.  Austin,  the  Honorable 
Branch  T.  Archer,  and  the  lamented  William  H.  Wharton, 
had  just  returned  from  the  United  States  as  commissioners,  and 
were  urging  on  the  defences  against  the  common  enemy. 
About  that  time,  or  soon  after,  Houston  was  elected  President 
by  a  popular  vote,  and  having  heard  of  his  slanders  against 
Austin,  I  wrote  him  a  letter,  the  copy  of  which  I  now  hold, 
certified  to  by  a  gentleman,  well  known  in  Texas  for  his  integ- 
rity, insisting  upon  Austin's  appointment  as  Secretary  of  State. 
He  was  so  appointed  by  Houston,  in  the  fall  of  that  very  year 
in  which  he  was  so  often  threatened  to  be  hanged  by  the 
Senator.  Whether  this  appointment  was  the  result  of  my 
letter,  which  Houston  warmly  complimented,  or  the  fear  of 
Austin's  growing  popularity,  is  immaterial.  The  Presidential 
election  of  1856  approaches,  and  the  manes  of  Austin  must  be 
appeased,  as  the  attention  of  the  people  of  Texas  are  turned  to 
another  of  their  citizens  for  that  office,  in  the  person  of  Sena- 
tor Rusk,  who  was  the  uniform  friend  of  Austin,  and  whose 
claims  to  their  confidence  is  a  thousand-fold  greater  than  that 
of  this  political  empiric. 

The  third  and  fourth  paragraphs  of  the  senator's  speech  are 
not  only  notoriously  false  both  in  and  out  of  Texas,  but  which  I 
will  show  from  his  subjoined  letters  to  me,  written  in  his  own 
hand,  and  now  in  my  possession,  subject  to  the  inspection  of 


11 

every  senator  and  other  gentlemen  who  may  wish  to  see  them. 
The  sobriquet  which  he  applies  to  me  is  the  invention  of  his 
own  chaste  conception,  and  tittered  under  his  senatorial  pro- 
tection, around  which  he  also  throws  the  panoply  of  the  Church. 
That  any  other  Texian  ever  applied  such  an  epithet  to  me,  is 
what  I  never  heard,  or  do  I  believe  ;  nor  have  I  any  fear  of 
such  ever  being  the  case  ;  and  if  the  Brasos  river  shall  wash 
the  foul  lie  from  his  throat,  it  will  possess  greater  virtues  than 
those  who  know  the  senator  hope  for.  The  only  sobriquet  of 
the  kind  I  ever  knew  applied  to  a  Texian,  was  this  very  one 
which  the  senator  for  years  applied  to  himself.  For  years, 
during  his  drunken  orgies,  it  was  a  common  boast  for  him  to 
say,  that  "  I  am  the  Hg  dog  of  Texas — the  *  master  cur  of  the 
tan-yard"  I  believe  that  this  was  the  only  political  truth  this 
political  charlatan  ever  was  guilty  of. 

The  senator  says  in  this  paragraph,  that  "  General  Thomas 
J.  Green  is  what  he  calls  himself"  My  unconditional  com- 
mission as  Brigadier-General  of  the  first  brigade  of  the  Texas 
army,  signed  by  President  David  G.  Burnett,  and  countersign- 
ed by  Thomas  J.  Rusk,  then  secretary  of  war,  on  the  19th  of 
March,  1836,  was  tendered  me  without  solicitation  on  my  part, 
by  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  cabinet.  This  commission  I 
cherish  as  an  honorable  testimonial  of  my  service  in  the  cause 
of  Texian  liberty,  for  which  I  received  repeatedly  the  thanks 
of  the  leading  men  in  Texas,  and  among  them  the  senator  him- 
self, as  his  letters  will  show,  every  word  of  which  is  written  in 
his  own  hand.  I  was  elected  to  congress,  not  " once"  as  the 
senator  falsely  charges,  "  by  the  army,"  but  three  different 
times,  by  two  of  the  largest  and  most  intelligent  counties  of  the 
republic.  In  1836  I  was  unanimously  returned  a  member 
from  the  county  of  Bexar.  Some  doubts  were  entertained 
whether  I  was  constitutionally  eligible  to  a  seat,  being  at  that 
time  in  command  of  the  first  brigade  in  the  field.  The  army 
was  in  great  need.  It  was  much  feared  that  their  interest 
would  be  overlooked ;  and,  mainly  at  the  urgent  solicitations 
of  my  friends,  Generals  Thomas  J.  Rusk  and  Felix  Huston, 
also  in  the  field,  did  I  consent  to  take  my  seat  in  congress,  to 
sustain  the  army,  as  well  as  other  public  duty.  The  following 
was  Senator  Houston's  opinion  of  my  eligibility  : 


12 

"EXECUTIVE  OFFICE, 
"  Columbia,  Texas,  25th  Oct.,  1836. 
"  Gen.  THOMAS  J.  GREEN, 

"  Texian  Army. 

"SiR : — I  have  the  honor  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  favor,  under 
date  of  the  19th  inst,  with  its  enclosures.  In  reply,  I  can  only  say  that  it 
was  my  opinion,  that  there  was  no  constitution  for  Texas,  until  the  final 
action  of  the  people  upon  it,  which  was  their  vote  in  favor  of  its  adoption. 

"  On  my  inauguration  into  office,  I  found  you  in  possession  of  a  seat  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  and,  as  each  house  is  to  judge  of  the  competency 
of  its  members,  I  can  not,  and  will  not,  question  the  rectitude  of  their  'course. 
As  to  the  other  subject  contained  in  your  letter,  it  will  not  be  overlooked. 
"  With  high  consideration, 

"  I  am  your  obt.  servt., 

"  SAM  HOUSTON, 

"President." 

I  took  my  seat  accordingly.  The  journals  of  that  first  Con- 
gress, and  the  book  "of  laws  which  followed,  will  show  what 
that  Congress  did,  and  what  participation  I  had  in  that  result. 
The  army  was  re-organized  during  that  first  session,  and  while 
I  was  a  member.  President  Houston  nominated  me  for  the 
command  of  the  army.  My  nomination  was  rejected  by  a  ma- 
jority of  one  vote  ;  several  of  President  Houston's  friends  vot- 
ing against  it,  because,  as  they  said,  that  I  was  still  a  mem- 
ber of  Congress,  and  therefore  constitutionally  ineligible.  Sus- 
pecting Houston  of  conniving  against  me,  I  denounced  him,  to 
which  he  replied  by  the  following  letter ;  and  also  sent  the 
Attorney-General  J.  Pinckney  Henderson  to  me,  whose  honor 
and  veracity  has  never  been  questioned,  with  the  offer  of  Ad- 
jutant-General of  the  army,  which  I  refused,  as  I  did  his  other 
proffers  of  office. 

"COLUMBIA,  TEXAS,  December  27,  1836. 
"GEN.  THOMAS  J.  GREEN: 

"  SIR  : — Your  favor  of  yesterday  having  been  placed  in  my  hands  late  this 
evening,  I  seize  a  moment  to  reply  to  it.    In  personal  conversation  I  did 
really  suppose  I  had  satisfied  you,  that  you  had  no  reason  to  feel  either  mor-  ] 
tification  or  disgrace ;  but  it  seems  that  you  labor  under  a  feeling  of  both,  i 
I  truly  regret  that  you  should  do  either — nor  does  any  cause  exist  why  you 
should.     I  certainly  apprised  you  from  the  first  that  I  should  nominate  a 
senior  and  junior  Brigadier-General,  but  would  not  nominate  a  Major-General, 
but  that  I  should  keep  vacant.     When  this  was  in  contemplation  I  intended, 
as  I  did,  to  nominate  you  as  senior  Brigadier.     Subsequently  I  heard  that 


13 

constitutional  objections  would  be  made  to  the  confirmation  of  your  appoint- 
ment. I  frankly  stated  to  you  that  such  would  be  the  case,  as  I  had  learned. 
I  did  not  at  first  believe  there  was  any  constitutional  objection ;  but  on  exa- 
mination I  was  satisfied  there  was,  and  frankly  stated  the  fact  to  you,  but 
never  did  so  express  myself  to  any  one  where  it  could  prejudice  the  confirma- 
tion of  the  nomination. 

"  You  then  alleged  that  the  same  objection  would  not  obtain  against  you 
as  Major-General,  and  you  seem  to  have  contemplated  no  other  obstacle. 
Be  it  so.  I  am  disposed  to  serve  my  friends  as  far  as  any  man  ought  to  do, 
either  in  public  or  private  life  ;  but  you  will  admit  as  a  public  functionary  I 
have  a  trust  to  exercise,  and  in  the  use  of  it  I  must  be  limited,  and  must  be  gov- 
erned by  some  sort  of  principle.  How  then,  from  the  situation  of  the  country, 
was  I  bound  to  act — taking  into  view  the  state  of  the  army  and  the  country  ? 
We  had  less  than  a  brigade  of  men  in  the  field ;  nor  do  we  expect,  without  a 
change,  to  have  two  brigades  in  the  field  before  the  spring,  and  less  than  that 
number  cannot  constitute  a  division.  Through  favoritism  I  might  call  the 
present  force  a  '  Division,'  but  it  would  be  mockery  of  everything  military. 
The  curse  of  the  country  has  been  an  excess  of  officers,  as  you  well  know, 
for  when  I  came  into  office,  the  force  in  the  field  was  reported  at  six  hundred 
and  fifty,  and  the  number  of  officers  commissioned  five  hundred  and  ninety 
two,  as  well  as  I  recollect. 

"You  state  in  your  note  that  you,  with  others,  sustained  this  administra- 
tion against  attempts  to  embarrass  or  destroy  it.  That  you  did  I  am  satis- 
fied, and  I  presume  that  you  acted  from  principle,  as  I  conceive  I  have  done 
in  relation  to  my  nominations  to  the  Senate.  If  you  feel  that  the  *  appointing 
power '  has  treated  you  wrong,  I  seriously  regret  that  you  are  so  impressed  ; 
and  I  am  well  assured  that  when  you  reflect  calmly  upon  the  subject,  that 
your  impressions  must,  if  from  one  fact  only,  and  that  fact  is  that  I  preferred 
no  man  to  you,  and  in  nowise  attempted  to  pretermit  your  claims.  Your 
mortification  now,  as  you  were  rejected  on  constitutional  grounds,  must  be 
imaginary;  but  had  I  nominated  you  for- Major-General,  when  the  army  and 
the  country  did  not  require  it,  you  would  have  had  grounds  to  have  com- 
plained of  a  different  character,  or  I  was  not  correctly  advised.  As  a  man 
I  was  and  am  your  friend.  As  an  officer  I  have  done  you  justice.  Had  I 
permitted  your  urgency  to  have  induced  me  to  nominate  you  as  Major-Gene- 
ral, with  the  knowledge  which  I  possessed  of  matters,  you  must  justly  have 
complained  of  me  for  want  of  candor  and  friendship.  I  wished  to  place  you 
in  the  command  of  the  army.  I  attempted  it,  and  the  wish  failed. 

"  I  appreciated  fairly  your  zeal,  your  activity  and  your  usefulness  in  the 
cause  of  Liberty  in  Texas.  I  have  evinced  my  confidence  in  you  as  an  officer ; 
and  as  a  friend  and  a  gentleman  you  shall  never  have  reason  to  doubt  my 
regard. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be  your  obedient  servant, 

"SAM  HOUSTON." 


14: 

I  have  copied  the  above  letter  entire,  that  it  may  speak 
for  itself.  Now,  it  will  be  recollected  that  I  am  the  same 
General  Green  which  he  wished  to  place  in  command  of  the 
army — thus,  says  he :  "I  appreciated  fairly  your  zeal,  your 
activity,  and  your  usefulness  in  the  cause  of  liberty  in  Texas. 
I  have  evinced  my  confidence  in  you  as  an  officer  /  and  as  a 
friend  and  as  a  gentleman  you  shall  never  have  REASON  to 
doubt  my  regard"  But  President  Houston  had  taken  a  solemn 
oath  to  support  the  constitution  of  the  Republic,  and  yet  he 
thought  me  so  well  qualified  to  command  the  army,  he  violates 
his  oath  to  place  me  in  that  command.  Hear  him  in  his  letter. 
"  I  did  not  at  first  believe  there  was  any  constitutional  objec- 
tion, but  on  examination,  I  was  satisfied  there  was,  and  frankly 
stated  the  fact  to  you  /  but  never  did  so  express  myself  to  any 
one  where  it  could  prejudice  the  confirmation  of  the  nomina- 
tion" What  he  says  about  the  number  of  men  and  officers  in 
the  field  at  the  time  he  came  into  office,  is  one  of  his  ad  cap- 
tandum  falsehoods,  which  he  has  all  his  life  been  ready  off- 
hand to  assert,  and  give  them  a  seeming  truth  by  the  particu- 
larity of  some  odd  number  in  figures,  or  some  "  eccentric  "  ex- 
pression. The  Texas  army  had  never  been  so  strong — so  much  so 
that  Generals  Thomas  J.  Rusk,  Felix  Huston,  and  myself,  had 
just  previously  held  a  council  of  war  upon  invading  Matamo- 
ras.  But  suppose  his  assertion  was  true ;  then  it  is  plain  that 
he  did  not  do  his  duty  in  nominating  myself  and  Felix  Huston, 
as  first  and  second  Generals  of  Brigade,  and  afterwards  Gen- 
eral A.  Sydney  Johnson. 

I  will  here  notice  that  portion  of  the  Senator's  speech,  in 
which  he  speaks  of  my  filibuster  brigade  of  "  230  men,  in 
1836."  As  I  have  more  to  say  upon  this  subject  hereafter,  I 
will  only  for  the  present  give  a  sample  of  what  shameless 
falsehoods  pervade  every  line  of  this  production.  The  Sen- 
ator, in  one  part  of  his  speech,  asks  "  why  did  he  (I)  not  go  to 
the  proper  office  for  information  ?"  I  have  done  so  in  more 
than  one  instance,  as  he  will  have  cause  to  regret,  before  I 
have  done  with  him.  The  following  is  a  sample  of  my  official 
information : — 


15 

"ADJUTANT  GENERAL'S  OFFICE, 
AUSTIN,  TEXAS,  November  6th,  1854. 

"  I  hereby  certify  that  by  the  muster-rolls  on  file  in  this  office,  which  said 
rolls  were  duly  approved  and  certified  to  by  the  late  John  A.  Wharton, 
Secretary  of  War,  on  the  25th  day  of  September,  1836,  and  certified  to  by 
the  proper  officers  belonging  to  the  1st  brigade  of  the  Texas  army,  under  the 
command  of  Brigadier  General  Thomas  J.  Green,  that  there  were  nine 
hundred  and  six  rank  and  file,  including  officers ;  and  that  so  far  as  it  appears 
from  said  muster-rolls,  there  does  not  appear  an  over  proportion  of  officers  in 
said  Brigade. 

"  JAMES  S.  GILLETT,  Adjutant  General. 

On  the  1st  of  January,  1837,  when  I  -was  about  visiting 
the  United  States,  President  Houston  again  wrote  me  his 
"Dear  General,"  imploring  me  to  send  "  troops  and  supplies" 
as  I  had  extensively  done  the  Spring  previous.  On  the  2nd 
of  August,  1837,  he  again  wrote  me,  repudiating  Colonel  Geo. 
"W.  Hockley's  draft  of  $500,  in  my  favor,  for  money  which  I 
had  advanced  Colonel  Hockley  in  Washington  city,  upon 
Houston's  letter  of  credit.  In  this  letter  he  acknowledges  to 
have  received  through  me,  from  Colonel  "William  Christie, 
five  hundred  dollars,  which  was  for  the  aforesaid  Santa  Anna 
saddle.  This  letter  I  still  hold  for  the  inspection  of  those  who 
may  doubt.  My  answer  to  which,  was  uncompromising  de- 
nunciation of  his  shameless  meanness.  He  never  ventured  to 
write  me  again.  He  found  that  I  was  beyond  the  price  of  his 
official  bribery,  with  the  boldness  to  denounce  his  many  cor- 
ruptions, which  every  day  were  becoming  more  apparent. 

The  most  cool  and  barefaced  set  of  the  Senator's  falsehoods, 
form  the  whole  of  the  5th  paragraph  of  his  speech,  which  I 
here  insert  verbatim. 

"  In  1836  the  boundary  of  Texas  was  declared,  by  an  act  of  the  Legisla- 
ture of  that  Republic.  The  first  constitutional  President,  then  in  the  dis- 
charge of  his  duty,  drew  up  a  description  of  the  boundary  as  it  had  been 
pointed  out  after  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto,  but  had  not  yet  become  a  law.  He 
drew  up  the  law,  and  gave  it  to  the  President  of  the  Senate,  by  whom  it  was 
given  for  presentation  to  an  accidental  Senator,  this  identical  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son Green.  He  introduced  it,  and  it  became  the  law  of  Texas." 

Short  as  this  paragraph  is,  it  contains  not  less  than  six 
stupid  falsehoods  ;  it  was  not  the  duty  of  the  President  to  draw 


16 

up  the  law — lie  did  not  draw  it  up — lie  did  not  give  it  to  the 
President  of  the  Senate  ;  the  President  of  the  Senate  did  not 
give  it  to  an  "  accidental  Senator,  this  identical  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son Green."  Neither  was  I  a  member  of  the  Senate,  or  was 
Houston  the  President  of  the  Republic.  So  far  from  these  as- 
sertions of  the  Senator  being  true,  these  are  the  facts  which 
the  Journals  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  of  which  I  was  a 
member,  will  show ;  which  not  only  every  living  member  of 
that  house  will  bear  witness,  but  which  is  a  matter  of  general 
notoriety,  and  have  been  published  time  and  again  for  the  last 
eighteen  years,  and  never  before  denied  or  even  questioned. 

"  Journal  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  of  the  Republic  of  Texas,  Oc- 
tober llth,  1836,  page  40.  Mr.  Green  gave  notice  tluit  he  would  on  some  future 
day  ask  leave  to  introduce  a  l)ill  to  define  the  western  boundary  of  Texas"  Mark 
the  date — David  G.  Burnett  was  then  President  of  the  Republic.  Again, 
page  116  : 

"  'Mr.  Green,  introduced  a  bill  to  be  entitled  an  act  to  define  the  bound- 
aries of  the  Republic  of  Texas.'  Read  first  time  and  passed  to  a  second  read- 
ing without  opposition.  Again,  page  259  : 

"  Mr.  Green  move'd  to  take  up  the  bill  entitled  '  An  Act  to  define  the 
boundaries  of  Texas,'  and  the  question  being  taken,  was  carried  ;  and  the  same 
being  read  the  second  time, 

"  Mr.  Green  moved  to  strike  out  the  second  and  third  sections  of  the  bill ; 
and  the  question  being  taken,  was  carried. 

"  Mr.  Branch  moved  to  suspend  the  rule,  and  read  the  bill  a  third  time 
forthwith  ;  and  the  question  being  taken,  was  carried.  The  Speaker  asked 
shall  the  bill  pass  ?  and  the  question  being  taken,  was  carried."  This  not  all. 

I  not  only  introduced  the  measure  before  Houston  was  Pre- 
sident, but  carried  it  through  the  committee  of  foreign  rela- 
tions, under  the  strongest  presentiment  of  its  future  conse- 
quence, did  press  it  through  Congress  to  a  final  passage,  against 
the  opinion  of  my  warmest  personal  friends,  "  that  it  was  un- 
necessary" When  this  was  accomplished,  I  went  in  person  to 
President  Houston  (he  in  the  meantime  had  been  inaugurated), 
on  the  last  days  of  the  session,  and  had  much  difficulty  in  get- 
ting him  to  sign  it,  as  he  said  that  "  there  was  no  necessity  for 
such  a  law"  In  1846,  President  Polk,  in  several  messages, 
informed  the  Congress  that,  upon  this  law  "  he  had  ordered 
General  Taylor  to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  that  he  would  defend 


17 

that  "boundary"  The  Santa  Anna  treaty  with  Texas,  in  1836, 
had  failed,  and  President  Polk  had  little  other  legal  or  interna- 
tional right,  to  defend  the  Rio  Grande.  He  complimented  me 
for  my  " happy  thought"  in  being  the  author  of  said  law,  and 
said  without  it  he  never  would  have  moved  up  to  that  line. 

General  Houston  was  at  that  time  a  member  of  the  United 
States  Senate,  and  made  speeches  upon  the  war ;  but  never  until 
this  late  day,  when  he  supposed  that  proofs  were  difficult  to  be 
obtained,  has  he  had  the  unblushing  hardihood  to  claim  the 
credit  of  the  law.     Such  falsehoods  as  these,  the  Senator  and  a 
few  of  his  servile  minions  call  "  tact."     In  1848  he  was  at  the 
democratic  Baltimore  convention  intriguing  to  have  himself 
taken  up  as  the  Compromise  candidate  for  the  presidency,  and 
when  his  name  was  not  even  called  in  the  convention,  in  con- 
nection with  this  office,  he  shrugged  his  shoulders,  and  said 
that  he  "  was  fixing  the  thing  for  '52."     This  both  he  and  his 
friends  called  tact.    In  1852  he  had  humbugged  the  demo, 
cratic  party  in  Texas  to  believe  that  "  that  was  the  time  for 
him"    A  majority  of  the  Texas  delegates  controlled  the  four 
Texas  votes,  and  with  a  half  dozen  abolitionists,  voted  for  him. 
General  Pierce  was  nominated.    The  Senator  again  shrugged 
his  shoulders,  and  said,  "  I  am  working  for  '56."   Another 
edition  of  "  tact."     Since  which  time,  he  has  tacked  into  the 
Abolitionists,  tacked  into  the  Know  Nothings,  and  tacked  into 
the  Baptists,  with  occasional  interludes  into  temperance,  and 
Indians,  with  parenthetical  spasmodic  slander  of  Pierce,  Doug- 
lass,  Cass,   Buchanan,   and  every  other    gentleman  who    is 
talked  of  for  the  presidency.    For  sensible  men  to  suppose  that 
such  "  tact "  will  ever  place  him  in  the  White  House,  is  grossly 
calumnious  of  the  American  people.     Tacking  into  the  Aboli- 
tionists may  not  scatter  them  as  a  polecat  would  a  hen-roost — 
they  are  fond  of  the  fetid,  and  that  is  a  matter  of  taste.     But 
that  the  great  Know  Nothing  party,  or  the  meek  and  Christian 
Baptist,  would  admit  him  into  their  political  confidence,  any 
sooner  than  they  would  pestilence  to  their  domestic  hearths,  is 
what  I  cannot  believe ;  and  I  predict  that  after  '56  his  next 
tack  will  be  into  his  first  love — that  he  will  return  to  the  whis- 
key bottle,  as  a  "  sow  to  the  wallow." 

I  do  here  most  positively  declare,  and  I  will  stake  my  life 

2 


18 

and  honor  upon  its  truth,  that  the  Senator's  pamphlet  speech 
before  me,  independent  of  what  I  have  already  noticed,  con- 
tains THEEE  HUNDRED  AND  SEVENTY-SIX  positive,  and  I  believe 
wilful,  malicious,  premeditated  falsehoods  against  myself, 
Commodore  Moore,  Colonel  Fisher,  ex-President  Burnet,  and 
others,  besides  his  calumnious  inuendoes  and  false  deductions. 
To  follow  up  and  establish  each  of  these  falsehoods  seriatim, 
which  I  have  the  proofs  to  do,  would  not  only  swell  this  com- 
munication to  a  tedious  length,  but  would  subject  me  to  the 
oft  repeated  and  stupid  charge  of  egotism.  But  who,  I  may 
ask,  is  not  an  egotist,  save  the  stupid  dolt,  who  never  made  his 
mark  in  any  walk  of  life.  The  greatest  men  who  have  figured 
in  the  world's  history,  from  Alexander  to  Napoleon,  are  the 
greatest  egotists,  because  it  was  necessary  for  them  to  speak  in 
the  personal  pronoun  oftener  than  other  men.  Even  the  Sena- 
tor himself,  had  he  spoken  truth  for  the  last  forty  years,  would 
have  been  a  greater  egotist  than  they.  To  speak,  however,  of 
him  in  the  same  century  with  such  names,  is  slander  upon 
true  nobility  and  truth — it  is  the  coupling  of  the  Bengal  tiger 
with  the  skunk — the  "  sublime  with  the  ridiculous  " — "  hype- 
rion  to  a  satyr." 

If  I  must  be  an  egotist,  in  the  vulgar  acceptation  of  the  term, 
it  will  be  because  the  most  of  these  three  hundred  and  seventy- 
six  falsehoods  are  charged  against  myself.  I  will  endeavor, 
however,  to  condense  his  tautology  of  falsehoods  to  a  clear  illus- 
tration und  a  readable  length. 

A  long  time  the  Senator  has  been  noted  for  an  inuendo 
system  of  attack  upon  personal  character,  male  and  female, 
when  he  could  not,  with  any  show  of  plausibility,  make  a 
direct  charge.  This  system  is  the  more  infamous,  because  it 
seeks  avoidance  of  responsibility,  and  leaves  the  party  accused 
without  means  cf  answering  a  tangible  charge.  Thus,  when 
the  Senator  was  oxce  discarded  by  a  lady  of  high  character  in 
South  Carolina,  he  m^de  a  peace-offering  to  his  unmanly  coxcomb 
nature,  by  saying,  in  his  peculiar  manner,  that  "her  coachman 
was  a  little  too  likely"  What  volumes  of  dirty  slander  were 
here  meant !  Again,  when  the  public  opinion  of  Nashville, 
Tennessee,  made  him  fly  the  State  for  his  vile  treatment  of  his 
chaste  and  amiable  lady — when  Thomas  Crutcher,  the  octo- 


19 

genarian  friend  of  Andrew  Jackson,  who  had  been  forty  years 
the  Treasurer  of  the  State,  and  was  proverbial  for  his  blunt 
honesty  and  purity,  openly  denounced  him  as  a  "  wretch  who 
ought  to  ~be  hanged" — he  pretended  to  say  nothing  of  the 
causes  of  the  separation, — this  he  could  not  do  without  making 
himself  a  villain — he  for  years  would  charge  himself  with  a 
sufficient  amount  of  Dutch  courage  to  say,  "  that  he  did  not 
believe  there  was  a  virtuous  woman  in  the  world  " — that  the 
Bible  proved  that  the  Virgin  Mary  herself  was  what  neither 
language  or  morals  will  permit  me  to  repeat.  This  is  oue  of  the 
ten  thousand  sins  which  he  pretends  to  have  washed  out  by 
the  Brasos. 

So  it  is  now,  he  speaks  by  inuendo  of  my  JSTorth  Carolina 
and  Florida  "  antecedents,"  meaning  thereby  to  convey  the 
idea  that  they  were  not  honorable.  Whilst  that  I  deny  the 
insinuation,  as  it  is  maliciously  villainous,  and  leave  the  thou- 
sands of  my  acquaintance  in  my  native  State  and  Florida,  to 
answer  this  slander,  I  do  fearlessly  say  that  the  antecedents  of 
no  man  in  either  State  are  more  honorable.  The  first  time  that 
I  ever  saw  General  Houston,  was  in  the  fall  of  1824.  I  was 
just  then  out  of  school,  and  for  my  activity  and  usefulness  in 
the  cause  of  Jackson,  was  appointed,  over  many  leading  gen- 
tlemen of  the  State,  bearer  of  the  first  votes  for  that  distin- 
guished patriot  which  crossed  the  Roanoke  to  Washington 
city.  It  may  be  considered  an  honorable  antecedent  to  know 
that  I  was  the  first  individual  east  of  the  Alleghany,  and  per- 
haps in  the  Union,  in  April,  1820,  then  a  student  at  Chapel 
Hill,  the  University  of  my  native  State,  who  made  a  speech  in 
favor  of  Jackson  for  the  Presidency.  This  fact  is  well  recol- 
lected by  my  numerous  college  friends,  among  whom  I  may 
name  General  Lucius  J.  Polk,  of  Murray  county,  Tennessee, 
and  the  Right  Rev.  Bishop  Otey,  of  the  same  State  ;  and,  I  am 
proud  to  say,  that  I  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  that  great  man 
to  the  day  of  his  death. 

I  will  here  relate  an  incident  of  the  Senator  himself, — it  is 
this : — Just  four  weeks  previous  to  the  death  of  General  Jack- 
son, I  spent  the  day  with  him  at  the  Hermitage.  He  was  then 
greatly  excited  upon  the  subject  of  the  annexation  of  Texas. 
It  had  safely  carried  his  friend,  Mr.  Polk,  into  the  Presidency. 


20 

while  it  had  accomplished  a  darling  desire  with  him : — the 
defeat  of  Mr.  Clay.  I  was  just  from  Texas.  General  Jackson 
asked  "  how  was  Houston  about  annexation  ?"  I  replied  that 
"the  most  intelligent  men  of  Texas  believed  that  he  was  oppos- 
ed to  the  measure ;  that  in  his  cooler  moments  he  pretended  a 
quasi  friendship  for  it,  but  that  just  previously  he  had  made  a 
speech  in  Montgomery  County,  at  Spring  Creek,  I  had  under- 
stood, with  whiskey  enough  in  him  to  make  him  tell  the  truth 
(in  vino  veritas\  and  he  there  denounced  the  measure."  The 
General  replied  that  "  he  has  written  me  letters  lately  in  favor 
of  it,  but  from  what  you  tell  me,  and  what  I  see  in  the  papers, 
his  course  is  very  astonishing."  I  replied,  "  You  do  not  sup- 
pose, General,  that  Houston  is  capable  of  writing  you  any  thing 
but  what  he  supposed  would  be  pleasing."  The  old  hero  nod- 
ded assent,  but  I  regret  that  he  departed  this  life  before  Hous- 
ton's public  acknowledgment  of  my  charge.  To  excuse  him- 
self from  this  charge,  the  Senator  soon  after  came  to  New  Or- 
leans, and  in  a  public  speech  said  that  he  was  "  coquetting  " 
with  the  British  Minister.  Thus  the  President  of  a  Kepublic 
of  enlightened  Anglo- American  citizens,  to  acknowledge,  that 
by  falsehood  and  dissimulation  he  was  dealing  with  a  great 
nation,  which  had  been  among  the  first  to  recognize  our  nation- 
ality. This  will  long  remain  in  American  Diplomacy  the  cli- 
max of  national  perfidy. 

The  most  perfidious  part  of  this  transaction,  is  not  in  his 
acknowledging  the  disgrace,  by  calling  it  "  coquetry,"  but  in 
his  heartless  attempt  in  trying  to  shift  it  oif  upon  his  successor, 
President  Anson  Jones,  who  from  the  following  correspon- 
dence shows  that  though  he,  Jones,  was  at  that  time,  1844, 
Secretary  of  State,  under  President  Houston,  yet  that  he  sus- 
pected Houston's  integrity  so  much  that  he  preserved  the  evi- 
dences of  his  guilt,  in  his  own  handwriting. 

"BARRINGTON,  Washington  co.,  Texas, 
October  19th,  1848. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Western  Texian: 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — Very  many  misrepresentations  having  been  made  in  relation 
to  the  relative  course  of  Gen.  HOUSTON  and  myself,  on  the  subject  of  the  an- 
nexation of  Texas  to  the  United  States,  the  whole  matter  will  be  placed  in  its 


21 

proper  light  before  the  public  by  the  following  order  addressed  to  me,  by  that 
gentleman,  in  1844,  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  from  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment : 

EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,       ) 
Washington,  Sept.,  24th,  1844.  $ 

HON.  ANSON  JONES, 

Secretary  of  State,  &c.,  <&c. 

"  SIR  : — Let  despatches  be  forthwith  sent  to  Dr.  Smith,  to  the  care  of  Mr. 
Rate,  (vide  note  «,)  at  London. 

"Let  instructions  be  given  Mr.  Rate,  to  forward  said  despatches,  in  the 
event  of  Dr.  Smith's  departure  homeward,  to  Col.  Daingerfield,  at  the  Hague. 
Let  full  powers  and  letters  of  credence  be  also  transmitted  to  Col.  Dainger- 
field, to  be  used  by  him,  in  the  event  of  Dr.  Smith's  leaving  Europe,  in 
conducting  the  necessary  negotiations  with  the  courts  of  England  and 
France. 

"  Let  our  representatives  (Dr.  Smith  or  Col.  Daingerfield)  be  instructed  to 
complete  the  proposed  arrangement  (5)  for  the  settlement  of  our  Mexican  diffi- 
culties as  soon  as  possible — giving  the  necessary  pledges  as  suggested  in  the 
late  despatch  of  Dr.  Smith  on  this  subject,  but  adhering  to  the  Rio  Grande 
as  a  boundary,  sine  qua  non. 

"Also,  let  our  representative  be  instructed  to  enter  at  once  into  the  proper 
negotiations  and  arrangements  for  the  admission  of  our  products  into  the 
ports  of  England,  (and  France,  if  possibly,)  upon  the  most  favorable  terms — 
suggesting  to  the  European  parties  that  now  is  the  most  favorable  time  for 
such  an  arrangement  with  this  country,  in  consequence  of  the  absence  of 
the  obstacles  which  a  treaty  with  the  United  States  might  interpose. 

"  SAM  HOUSTON." 

NOTES. 

"  (a)  Mr.  Lacklin  Macintosh  Rate,  a  London  merchant,  and  at  the  same  time 
an  agent  for  the  government  of  Texas. 

"  (b)  The  'proposed  arrangement' was  a  'Diplomatic  Act,' which,  in  the 
language  of  Dr.  Smith's  despatch,  '  would  give  to  the  European  Governments, 
parties  to  it,  a  perfect  right  to  forbid,  for  all  time  to  come,  the  annexation  of  Texas 
to  the  United  States : '  and  the  '  pledges '  spoken  of  were  to  the  same  purpose, 
or  that  Texas  would  never  consent  to  the  measure. 

"  This,  you  will  perceive,  was  the  "  Vermilion  Edict,"  and  had  I  complied 
with  it,  annexation  would  have  been  as  completely  killed  as  a  man  would  be 
by  having  his  head  cut  off,  or  a  European  war  superadded  to  the  Mexican 
one : — so  I  incurred  the  responsibility  of  postponing  the  same,  and  afterwards 
consummated  the  measure  of  annexation  hi  direct  opposition  to  the  '  policy 
of  Gen.  Houston,'  as  developed  in  the  above  letter.  I  trust  that  without  fur- 


22 

ther  comment  from  me,  this  communication,  made  from  a  just  regard  to  the 
establishment  of  truth,  will  be  satisfactory  to  those  who  may  have  been  led 
into  error  in  relation  to  the  respective  agency  of  Gen.  Houston  and  myself  in 
connection  with  this  great  measure  of  American  policy.  Some  delay  has  oc- 
curred in  making  it,  from  the  hope  that  Gen.  Houston  would  himself  inform 
the  public  of  the  facts  which  it  contains. 

"  Very  respectfully, 

"  Your  ob't  serv't, 

"ANSON  JONES." 


When  Houston  attempted  to  sacrifice  his  old  secretary  of 
state,  to  screen  himself  from  an  infamous  treason  to  his  own 
native  land,  that  secretary  had  the  boldness  to  place  the  trea- 
son on  his  old  master's  forehead,  in  characters  that  can  never 
be  effaced.  What  is  the  senator's  course  in  reference  to  this 
charge  ?  Though  it  was  made  by  President  Jones,  through 
the  public  press  on  the  19th  of  October,  1848,  against  him, 
Houston,  while  in  the  United  States  Senate,  he  makes  no  pub- 
lic vindication,  because  the  proofs  were  in  the  hands  of  his 
accuser — he  shrinks  from  the  charge  publicly,  and  contents 
himself  by  retailing  in  private  the  dirtiest  calumnies  of  his 
old  friend.  Here  was  a  charge  of  corruption  and  treason 
against  him  as  senator — where  then  was  his  senatorial  privi- 
lege ?  From  his  subsequent  practice  it  would  not  have  been 
difficult  for  him  to  have  obtained  the  protection  of  your  hon- 
orable body.  To  turn  from  this  digression  upon  coquetry. 

I  was  honored  with  a  seat  in  the  legislature  of  my  native 
state  from  the  county  of  Nathaniel  Macon,  when  a  very  young 
man.  I  have  since  been  a  member  of  the  Legislatures  of  Flo- 
rida and  California,  and  in  the  congress  of  the  Republic  of 
Texas  from  every  county  in  those  states  wherever  I  have  lived. 
I  have  been  honored  with  other  high  offices  from  those  states, 
which  every  one  but  Houston  will  acknowledge,  and  even  he 
knows,  that  I  have  filled  with  strict  integrity  and  success. 
Every  where  my  numerous  acquaintances  will  bear  testimony 
that  no  man  has  lived  more  for  his  friends.  That  my  purse 
and  house  in  my  native  state,  in  Florida,  in  Texas,  in  Jamaica 
Plain,  in  California — and  wherever  I  have  lived — have  ever 
been,  to  prodigality,  open  to  my  fellow-men.  There  is  not  a 
transaction  of  my  life  that  will  not  bear  honorable  scrutiny, 


23 

I  invite  the  most  rigid  now,  and  on  all  occasions.  I  was  a 
citizen  of  Texas  from  early  in  1836  to  the  spring  of  184:5. 
During  this  time  the  country  had  been  broken  up  by  the  das- 
tardly flight  of  Gen.  Houston  before  an  inferior  force  of  Mex- 
icans. The  people  of  Texas  were  at  this  time  poor  in  money ; 
they  owned  lands,  but  could  not  eat  lands.  Money  was  so 
scarce,  that  even  the  most  wealthy  were  frequently  without 
sufficient  to  pay  hotel  bills  and  traveling  expenses.  All  this 
time,  whether  I  was  in  Congress,  in  the  field,  or  in  the  dungeons 
of  Mexico,  my  house  was  the  refuge  of  my  soldier  comrades, 
and  numerous  other  friends,  some  of  whom,  for  humanity  sake, 
I  am  sorry  to  say,  though  they  enjoyed  my  open  hospitality  in 
those  trying  times,  have  since  played  the  sycophant  to  the 
senator,  for  "  filthy  official  lucre." 

By  the  senator's  own  showing,  his  antecedents,  whether  for 
good  or  bad,  had  their  origin  in  "himself" — had  they  have 
been  good  and  honorable,  a  corresponding  credit  would  have 
attached  to  him,  as  he  admits  that  his  forefathers  did  nothing 
for  "  themselves,  himself,  or  their  country."  "Whatever  my  own 
may  have  been,  it  is  with  unspeakable  pride  that  I  look  back 
upon  my  lineal  ancestors — the  Greens,  Hawkins,  Macons  and 
Christmas',  all  patriots,  and  distinguished  patriots  of  Seventy- 
Six  ;  and  that  not  a  drop  of  tory  blood  circulates  in  my  veins. 
If  pride  can  be  greater,  it  is  that  when  I  look  upon  the  tomb 
of  Solomon  Green,  my  own  venerated  father,  and  see  that  "  HE 

WAS  A  REVOLUTIONARY  PATRIOT,  AND  ONE  OF  THE  ADOPTERS  OF  THE 

FEDERAL  CONSTITUTION,"  and  that  he  carried  with  him  to  the 
grave,  the  homage  of  a  large  community.  To  me  there  is 
something  sublimely  beautiful  in  that  part  of  the  Chinese 
ethics,  which  teaches  one  to  do  nothing  to  disgrace  departed 
ancestors.  The  senator,  whose  disregard  of  the  living  is  so 
flagrant,  can  feel  but  little  indeed  for  the  reputation  of  the 
departed. 

What  the  senator  speaks  of  in  this  connection  of  my  run- 
ning away  from  Florida,  for  debt,  is  as  infamously  false  as  the 
"balance  of  his  charges.  I  had  been  a  successful  planter,  and 
the  representative  of  the  county  in  which  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment is  situated.  The  fever  of  the  country  swept  my  family 
from  me,  with  the  exception  of  an  only  son,  then  four  years  of 


24: 

age.  Him  I  carried  to  his  uncle,  in  Tennessee,  and  myself 
plunged  into  the  Texas  revolution,  with  no  selfish  calculation 
of  cost.  Before  doing  so,  I  had  my  property  sold  by  public 
notice,  and  every  cent  of  my  indebtedness  paid,  for  which  I 
was  responsible  either  on  my  own  individual  account,  or  as 
security.  Two  years  after  this  I  returned  from  my  duties  in 
Texas,  and  received  nearly  ten  thousand  dollars  as  a  balance 
due  me,  and  have  at  this  time  patented  lands  unsold  in  the 
county.  These  facts  are  well-known  to  ex-Senator  James  D. 
Westcott ;  Governors  Call,  Duval,  Brown,  and  many  other 
gentlemen  of  Tallahassee.  I  feel  most  sensibly  a  disgust  natu~ 
ral  to  every  man  of  honor,  in  being  compelled  to  defend  him- 
self against  charges  though  false,  and  made  by  a  noted  falsi- 
fier, yet,  so  made  under  the  sanctity  of  official  position ;  my 
purpose  therefore,  at  present,  is  to  deal  with  facts,  rather  than 
rhetoric. 

The  special  pleading  of  the  -.senator  makes  me  charge  him 
in  1850  as  having  said  that  the  late  John  C.  Calhoun,  when 
Secretary  of  "War,  dismissed  him,  Houston,  from  a  /Sw5-agency 
of  the  Cherokee  Indians  for  "  defaulting."  He  thus  places  in 
my  mouth  a  charge  which  I  never  made,  because  it  was  the 
only  one  he  could  defend.  My  recollection  of  this  circum- 
stance is  this  :  that  General  Wallace,  a  member  of  Congress 
from  South  Carolina,  asked  me  if  I  knew  of  a  long  settled  hos- 
tility of  Gen.  Houston  to  Mr.  Calhoun.  I  answered  in  the 
affirmative,  and  said  that  since  I  first  knew  Houston,  1824,  he 
had  always  been  in  the  habit  of  abusing  Mr.  Calhoun,  who 
had  turned  him  out  of  a  sub-agency  of  the  Cherokee  Indians. 
It  would  have  been  unnecessary  for  me  to  have  informed  a 
member  of  Congress  that  he  was  turned  out  as  a  "  defaulter" 
of  the  government,  for  the  department  would  have  shown  that 
fact — nor  did  I  suppose  that  such  was  the  case,  that  a  sw£>-agent 
was  entrusted  with  public  funds.  This  responsibility  I  sup- 
posed belonged  to  the  head-agency.  But  I  did  suppose,  that 
his  dismissal  from  office  was  owing  to  some  petit  larceny  pecu- 
lations or  on  account  of  his  having  married  one  of  the  Chero- 
kee squaws.  Does  that  senator  deny  that  he  was  turned  out 
of  office,  or  made  to  vacate  it  ? — if  so,  let  the  correspondence  of 
the  department  speak.  It  is  well  known  to  the  Senate,  that  on 


25 

sundry  occasions  Senator  Houston  made  nullification  the  osten- 
sible pretext  of  his  opposition  to  the  distinguished  South  Caro- 
linian, who  never  would  condescend  to  reply  to  the  "big  dog  of 
Texas"  That  great  man  would  as  soon  have  handled  a  dead 
dog  under  an  August  son.  Does  the  senator  deny  that  he  has 
abused  Mr.  Calhoun  for  more  than  thirty  years  ? — this  fact  is 
known  to  hundreds ;  yet,  nullification  is  only  half  that  age. 
A  sycophant,  as  was  Houston,  to  the  great  Jackson,  might 
shield  himself  for  the  time  under  such  a  battery,  so  that  he 
could  vent  more  effectually  his  spleen  against  the  great  nulli- 
fier.  So  did  he,  for  years,  vilify  and^  calumniate  the  lamented 
Henry  Clay,  because  he  supposed  it  pleasing  to  Gen.  Jackson. 
For  years  it  was  a  common  slander  of  Houston  to  say  that  Mr. 
Clay's  hostility  to  Jackson  was  on  account  of  Gen.  Jackson 
having  run  Mr.  Clay  out  of  a  tavern  in  Kentucky.  Yet,  I 
have  been  told  that  when  he,  Houston,  was  sent  on  to  Ashland 
as  one  of  the  Senate's  Committee  with  the  remains  of  that 
lamented  patriot,  that  he,  Houston,  in  the  presence  of  the 
people  of  Kentucky,  stooped  and  kissed  the  coffin  of  the 
illustrious  dead,  with  a  sanctimonious  phiz  which  would  have 
shamed  any  puritan  face  in  the  days  of  the  roundheads. 
Was  such  unblushing  hypocrisy  ever  before  witnessed  ?  I  have 
related  this  incident  to  illustrate  in  part  the  character  of  the 
senator,  whose  hardihood  could  speak,  publish  and  circulate, 
in  one  pamphlet,  under  senatorial  privilege,  and  with  the  pub- 
lic money,  five  hundred  Hack-hearted  lies.  This  is  a  hard 
word  ;  but  no  other  so  well  befits  a  truthful  reply  and  this  oc- 
casion. I  will  not  attempt  here  to  follow  this  senatorial  harle- 
quin through  his  political  tactics,  tergiversations,  antics.  I 
have  more  important  facts  for  the  public  ;  but  on  one  occasion 
he  said  from  his  place  in  the  Senate,  when  one  of  General  Jack- 
son's old  friends  turned  freesoiler,  that  "  if  the  immortal  hero 
of  the  hermitage  were  upon  earth,  there  would  not  be  an  olea- 
ginous spot  left  of  him"  the  freesoiler.  This  former  friend  of 
the  deceased,  however,  had  the  boldness  to  "  kick  the  dead 
lion,"  as  soon  as  breath  was  out  of  his  body.  Not  so  with  the 
senator.  Ten  years  he  attempted  to  act  the  jackall  upon  the 
reputation  of  the  illustrious  dead ;  and,  after  trying  by  every 
surreptitious  means  to  place  the  well-earned  mantle  of  the  de- 


26 

ceased  upon  his  own  beastly  nature,  which  was  nobly  resisted 
by  the  faithful  hard-shell  democrats,  he,  too,  turns  freesoiler. 
Now,  what  kind  of  spot  is  left  of  the  senator  ?  Every  honest 
man  will  say  a  DIRTY  SPOT. 

The  senator's  <mfo'-southern  fling  at  the  Texas  Pacific  Rail- 
road has  a  double  object.  Whilst  it  is  to  please  his  abolition 
supporters  in  the  North,  it  has  a  home  purpose  deeply  mali- 
cious. The  zeal  and  ability  with  which  his  colleague  General 
Rusk  advocates  this  great  enterprise,  is  every  way  creditable  to 
his  foresight  and  patriotism.  If  the  road  shall  be  built  (which  fact 
I  can  inform  Gen.  Houston  is  beyond  the  reach  of  his  malig- 
nity), it  will  add  to  his  (Rusk's)  deserved  popularity,  and  to 
that  extent  it  has  a  rancorous  place  in  the  heart  of  Houston. 

Not  an  inconsiderable  portion  of  the  senator's  pamphlet 
speech  is  an  oft-repeated  charge  l>y  him  of  corruption  on  the 
part  of  President  Burnet,  in  entering  into  treaty  stipulations 
with  Gen.  Santa  Anna,  after  the  battle  of  San  Jacinto.  It  is 
not  my  purpose  here  to  defend  President  Burnet.  There  lives 
not  a  man  so  well  able  to  do  it  as  himself,  and  which  he  has 
often  done,  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  every  honest  man  who 
chooses  to  inform  himself  of  facts.  President  Burnet's  emi- 
nently patriotic  service,  and  his  uniform  poverty  for  the  last 
twenty  years  in  Texas,  is  a  sufficient  vindication  from  the  slan- 
ders of  ten  thousand  such  tongues  as  Houston's.  And  here  we 
might  with  good  reason  ask,  whence  came  all  the  senator's 
wealth  ?  This  we  will  answer  hereafter.  But,  says  the  sen- 
ator, "  Santa  Anna  was  told  that  the  Commander-in-Chief  had 
no  power  to  enter  into  negotiations  with  him ; "  but  in  the 
next  breath  he  admits  that  he  did  enter  into  negotiations  with 
him,  by  requiring  Santa  Anna  to  make  Gen.  Filisola,  then  in 
command,  to  evacuate  the  country,  which  was  done.  The  sen- 
ator may  well  squirm  upon  this  subject.  Thousands  of  the 
most  intelligent  men  of  Texas  believe  that  his  trip  to  Or- 
leans was  to  receive  the  amount  of  the  captive's  promise, 
rather  than  the  healing  of  the  scratch  upon  his  ankle.  I  will 
here  ask  the  senator  where  is  the  letter  upon  this  subject,  which 
was  written  to  President  Lamar,  and  filed  in  the  office  of  the 
Secretary  of  State  in  1841.  President  Houston  came  into  office 
the  second  term  in  1842,  and  this  letter,  and  many  other  proofs 


27 

of  his  villainy,  have  been  stolen  from  that  office.  I  have  re- 
cently had  occasion  to  examine  said  office  with  much  care,  not 
only  for  that  letter,  but  for  the  one  he  so  boastfully  referred  me  to 
that  office  for — the  one  which  caused  the  "  decimation  of  the 
Mier  prisoners : "  neither  is  to  be  found.  But  Commodore  E. 
M.  Moore  holds  one  in  President  Houston's  own  hand  writing, 
written  on  that  identical  day,  and  signed  in  his  well-known 
signature.  I  will  here  give  it  without  the  alteration  of  a 
comma.  His  partisan  sycophants  have  denied  that  such  a 
letter  was  in  existence.  I  invite  the  whole  Senate,  the  whole 
American  Congress,  to  call  and  see  for  themselves.  I  invite 
all  Texians,  Abolitionists,  Know-Nothings,  Baptists — all  honest 
men  every  where,  and  of  every  party,  to  call  and  satisfy  them- 
selves of  this  most  infamous  of  all  stealing  in  the  history  of 
Kepublican  America. 

"  WASHINGTON  (Texas), 

"  Colonel  Bryan,  24th  January,  1843. 

"  Texian  Consul, 

"New  Orleans. 

"  My  Dear  Sir, — When  you  arrive  at  Orleans,  if  you  can,  have  the  enclosed 
Bill  filled,  and  as  you  pass  by  Galveston  you  will  be  authorised  by  Gail  Bor- 
den,  jun.,*  Esq.  to  draw  on  him  for  the  amount  of  the  purchases,  at  sixty  or 
ninety  days.  I  desire  that  you  should  see  that  the  carriage  or  double  ba- 
rouch,  will  track  the  usual  width  of  waggons  for  the  road. 

"  You  will  be  judge  of  the  quality  of  the  articles  and  their  prices,  regarding 
economy  in  their  purchase. 

"The  Furniture-Calico  you  will  select,  but  take  care  to  select  none  such  as 
will  exhibit  Turkey  Gobblers,  Peacocks,  Bears,  Elephants,  Wild  Boars,  or 
Stud  Horses ! ! !  Vines,  Flowers,  or  any  figures  of  taste,  you  can  select. 

"  I  hope  you  will  send  them  by  some  careful,  clever  fellow ;  and  as  I  am 
so  poor,  if  you  can  make  a  bargain  for  the  freight,  it  might  be  well! 

"  Consign  them  to  my  friend  Borden,  and  he  will  settle  the  freight! 

"I  will  rely  upon  you  in  all  things,  as  I  have  always  done,  and  will  only 
say  this  is  a  l  Stationery '  Bill!  ! ! 

"  You  will  please  present  Mrs.  Houston  and  myself  to  Col.  and  Madam 
Christy,  also  to  Mr.  Caruthers  and  family. 

"  Very  truly,  thy  friend, 

"SAM  HOUSTON.'" 
*  Collector  of  the  Port. 


28 

"  GENERAL  HOUSTON'S  MEMORANDUM. 

"  2  setts  Guitar  Strings, 

"  2  barrels  excellent  Flour, 

"2    do       •    do      Sugar, 

"1     do  do       Soap, 

"  2  sacks         do      Coffee  (Java), 

"  1  barrel         do       Herrings, 

"  i    do  do      Mackerel  (No.  1), 

"  1  keg  do      Lard, 

"  1  do  do       Goshen  Butter, 

"  1  barrel  Apples, 

"  1    do    Buckwheat, 

"  1  box  Prime  Tea  (Young  Hyson), 

"  1  Barouch  (excellent),  4  seats,  with  shafts,  tongue,  and  double  harness, 
with  a  whip  and  all  complete, 

"  1  Good  Dearbourn  Waggon  and  Harness, 

"  1  sett  neat  white  China,  for  Coffee, 

"  2  Wash  Pitchers  and  Bowls, 

"  1  neat  Wash  Stand, 

"  1  Bolt  fine  white  grass  Linnen, 

"  3  or  4  Bolts  white  cotton  Furniture  Fringe, 

"  1  Bolt  fine  Calico  (handsome), 

"1    do  coarse  do, 

"1    do  Furniture  Calico, 

"1    do        do        Dimity, 

"1    do  Linnen  Diaper,  for  Towels, 

"  1  Crimping  Iron, 

"  6  yards  fine  Cambric  Linnen, 

"  3  fine  large  Silk  Pocket  Handkerchiefs, 

"  3  pair  Silk  and  3  pair  Cotton  Socks, 

"  1  handsome  Pocket  Knife  (pretty  large), 

"  To  be  filled  by  Col.  Wm.  Bryan  for  his  friend, 

"  SAM  HOUSTON. 
"  WASHINGTON,  26th  January,  1843." 

Let  it  be  recollected  that  this  "  Stationery  "  Bill  was  filled 
and  paid  for,  as  directed  by  President  Houston ;  that  when 
the  articles  arrived  at  Galveston  from  Orleans,  they  were  car- 
ried up  the  Brasos  Eiver  to  Washington,  by  Capt.  John  N. 
Reed,  the  present  popular  Sheriff  of  Galveston,  then  in  com- 
mand of  a  steamer ;  and  before  he  could  collect  his  freight 
bill,  this  identical  Senator  Houston  made  him  make  it  out 
for  express  service,  and  it  was  so  paid.  Sugar  and  Soap, 
Butter  and  Buckwheat,  Lard  and  Flour,  Herrings  and 


Coffee,  Dearborn  "Wagon  and  Barouch,  whip,  shafts,  and  tongue 
complete,  Dimity  and  Crimping  Irons,  China  and  Fringe,  Lin- 
en and  Stud-Horse  Calico, — stationery,  very !  But  this  small 
stealing,  which  was  an  every-day  practice  of  President  Hous- 
ton, is  the  least  of  the  offence.  On  this  very  day,  January  24th, 
1843,  while  with  one  hand  he  was  robbing  the  impoverished 
treasury  of  Texas,  with  the  other  he  was  signing  the  death- 
warrant  of  the  brave  men  of  "Mier." 

The  following  publication  made  by  myself  in  reference  to 
this  subject,  will  speak  for  itself,  and  which  neither  the  Sena- 
tor or  his  friends  have  undertaken  since  to  mystify,  until  the 
appearance  of  his  senate  pamphlet. 

• 
«  TO  THE  PEOPLE  OF  TEXAS. 

"  WASHINGTON  CITY,  Jan.  10th,  1846. 

"  A  friend  has  just  placed  in  my  hands  a  *  Galveston  Civilian'  of  the  13th 
ult.,  containing  a  letter  from  Gen.  Sam  Houston,  purporting  to  be  a  vindica- 
tion of  his  conduct  in  reference  to  the  decimation  of  our  countrymen  in  Mexi- 
co. Gen.  Houston,  in  his  letter,  failing  to  adduce  any  evidence  of  his  inno- 
cence of  this  enormous  crime,  has  endeavored  to  divert  public  attention  from 
his  guilt,  by  the  grossest,  false,  and  vindictive — I  had  almost  said  unparal- 
leled slander  of  myself.  In  this  I  would  have  erred,  for  it  has  many  parallels 
from  Gen.  Houston  himself.  His  publication  of  the  gallant  Commodore 
Moore  to  the  world,  as  an  outlaw  and  pirate,  at  the  identical  time  that  his 
cannon  were  thundering  against  more  than  ten  times  his  force,  that  of  our 
common  enemy — his  reiterated  slanders  against  the  brave  Generals  Burleson, 
Sherman  and  Wharton,  and  almost  every  other  distinguished  man  in  Texas 
— his  oft  repeated  ridiculous  charges  against  ex-President  Burnet,  one  of  the 
purest  men  in  any  country — his  vile  denunciation  of  Gen.  Stephen  F.  Austin, 
the  father  of  his  country — his  perfidious  slander  of  the  spotless  wife  of  his 
own  bosom — yea,  in  his  general  character  as  an  universal  calumniator,  count- 
less parallels  might  be  adduced.  Though  his  charges  against  myself  must 
meet  that  contempt  from  every  honest  man  which  has  followed  the  habitual 
falsehoods  of  his  whole  life,  yet  the  circumstances  in  which  Gen.  Houston  and 
myself  are  now  placed  before  the  people  of  Texas,  make  it  proper  that  I 
should  appear  before  the  public  through  the  same  medium.  And  I  will  ask 
what  other  redress  is  left  me  ?  It  is  well  known  that  Gen.  Houston  holds 
himself  perfectly  irresponsible.  If  personal  chastisement  be  inflicted  upon 
him,  as  was  done  by  the  Hon.  Branch  T.  Archer  and  Col.  Jordon,  he  either 
pleads  sickness  or  old  age.  If  falsehood  is  proved  upon  him,  as  was  done  by 
Mr.  Wingfield,  and  many  others,  he  pleads  drunkenness.  II  is  due  to  myself 


30 

then,  that  I  should  in  this  case  prove  his  falsehood,  and  '  out  of  his  own 
mouth  will  I  convict  him.' 

"  Fellow  citizens,  it  has  been  three  long  years  and  over,  since  the  hard- 
fought  and  sanguinary  battle  of  Mier :  a  few  days  more  will  make  three  years 
since  that  gallant  little  band  of  your  countrymen  was  made  to  draw  hi  a 
black-bean  lottery,  and  each  tenth  man  shot.  Such  a  cold  blooded  murder 
astonished  the  whole  civilized  world,  and  put  to  the  test  the  wisest  politicians 
of  the  most  civilized  nations,  to  know  what  sufficient  cause  could  be  assigned 
therefor.  Could  it  be  that  they  had  fought,  under  the  requirements  of  their  own 
government,  considering  the  disparity  of  forces  and  the  circumstances  of  the 
case,  the  hardest  fought  battle  in  the  annals  of  war  ?  Could  it  be,  that  when 
captives,  they  had,  while  emaciated  and  worn  down  by  the  fatigues  of  a  long  and 
wearisome  march,  risen  upon  triple  their  number  of  armed  guards,  over- 
powered and  dispersed  them  uninjured,  and  then  peaceably  pursued  their 
way  homewards  ?  No !  these  actions  met  the  praises,  not  only  of  all  civilized 
nations,  but  even  the  highest  encomiums  of  semi-barbarian  Mexico.  For  what, 
then,  could  such  a  shocking  murder  have  been  perpetrated  ?  Alone,  upon  the 
most  authoritative  evidence,  that  they  were  without  the  pale  of  those  laws 
which  govern  civilized  nations  in  war.  Did  that  evidence  exist  ?  If  so,  who 
furnished  it,  and  how  came  it  to  the  knowledge  of  that  government  ? 

"  In  this  letter,  fellow  citizens,  I  must  necessarily  confine  myself  to  a  brief 
statement  of  this  matter,  and  refer  every  man  who  wishes  to  know  the  whole 
history  of  it,  to  appendix  No.  2,  page  450,  and  appendix  No.  6,  page  477,  of 
my  work  upon  Texas  and  Mexico,  in  which  will  be  seen  stated  all  the  evi- 
dence in  the  case,  and  such  evidence  as  no  man,  so  far  as  I  have  heard,  of 
the  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  in  this  country,  who  have  read  it,  pre- 
tended to  doubt.  That  evidence  is — that  Sam  Houston,  the  President  of 
Texas,  early  in  the  year  1843,  and  soon  after  the  battle  of  Mier,  wrote  a  letter 
to  Capt.  Elliot,  Her  Britannic  Majesty's  Charge  d' Affairs,  residing  in  Galves- 
ton,  which  he,  Houston,  requested  him,  Elliot,  to  forward  to  Mexico,  and 
which  he,  Elliot,  did  as  he  was  requested ;  in  which  Houston  said,  *  that 
though  the  Mier  prisoners  had  entered  Mexico  contrary  to  law  and  authority,  yet 
Tie,  Houston,  legged  mercy  for  them,  &c?  It  is  in  evidence,  that  upon  the  re- 
ceipt of  this  letter  of  Presd't  Houston,  that  Santa  Anna,  the  President  of 
Mexico,  ordered  the  decimation,  showing  that  the  President  of  Texas  was 
the  highest,  and  sufficient  authority  for  this  horrible  deed  :  because,  that  evi- 
dence had  proclaimed  them  brigands  and  robbers. 

"  Fellow  citizens,  these  facts  came  to  the  knowledge  of  myself  and  com- 
panions, through  the  American  and  English  ministers,  while  we  were  in  the 
dungeons  of  Mexico,  very  soon  after  this  sad  tragedy  in  March,  1843.  After 
my  escape  from  the  castle  of  Perote,  and  in  October  of  the  same  year,  I  pub- 
lished them  in  the  '  Galveston  News,'  and  notwithstanding  President  Hous- 
ton's then  control  of  the  Mails  and  Post  Offices  of  Texas  and  the  limited  cir- 
culation of  that  journal,  he,  Houston,  knowing  the  truth  of  these  charges,  and 
feeling  a  murderer's  guilt,  commenced  his  vindication  by  denying,  with  up- 
lifted eyes,  that  he  ever  wrote,  or  caused  to  be  written,  the  letter  charged  to 


31 

him.  (See  Lieut.  S.  H.  Walker's  statement,  page  453.)  This  was  President 
Houston's  FIRST  defence  of  himself;  but  upon  my  receipt  and  publication  of 
Gen.  Waddy  Thompson's  and  the  British  Minister's  letters  from  Mexico, 
proving  the  falsity  of  his  denial,  he  fled  to  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
town  of  Houston,  in  November  of  the  same  year,  and  made  a  speech,  which 
was  published  in  all  his  newspapers  of  that  day,  and  in  which  he  said,  *  it 
was  not  my  friend's,  Capt.  Elliott's  letter,  that  produced  the  mischief,'1  thereby 
implying,  that  Elliott  had  written  the  letter.  In  said  speech,  however,  he 
goes  on  to  charge  all  the  consequences  of  that  murder  to  a  letter  which 
Gen.  M.  Hunt  had  written  to,  and  which  was  published  in  the  *  Houston 
Telegraph '  of  the  18th  of  Jan.  previously.  This  is  Gen.  Houston's  SECOND 
defence,  and  thus,  up  to  this  hour,  so  far  as  I  am  informed,  Gen.  Hunt  and 
the  Telegraph  stand  charged  by  Gen.  Houston  with  the  horrid  butchery. 
On  the  12th  of  December,  which  was  about  one  month  after  his  speech  was 
published  in  his  annual  message  to  Congress,  he  again  changes  his  ground, 
and  said,  that  '  it  was  a  retaliation  on  account  of  those  under  Gen.  Somermlle 
who  robbed  Laredo?  charging  this  murder  to  those  who  returned  from  that 
place  with  Col.  Bennett.  Thus,  you  see,  for  the  THIRD  time,  in  the  short 
space  of  a  few  months,  when  pursued  by  the  ghosts  of  these  murdered  heroes, 
he  changes  his  ground  of  defence.  Now,  fellow  citizens,  after  a  lapse  of 
nearly  three  years,  when  his  control  over  the  public  intelligence  of  Texas  is 
about  to  give  way  to  an  honest  administration  of  the  mails, — when  my  work 
upon  Texas  and  Mexico  has  gone  the  length  and  breadth  of  this  great  nation, 
and  carried  conviction  to  the  mind  of  every  man  who  has  read  it,  that  Sam 
Houston  is  the  wilful  and  malicious  murderer  of  his  countrymen  of  Mier,  and 
just  on  the  eve  of  the  Congressional  elections  and  in  my  absence  from  Texas, 
he  comes  out  in  the  '  Civilian'  of  the  13th  of  last  month,  and  charges  this 
crime  upon  myself,  as  having  been  the  '  first  to  incite  the  men '  to  the  plun- 
der of  Laredo.  Thus,  for  the  FOURTH  time,  Gen.  Houston,  has  changed  his 
defence.  But,  fellow  citizens,  falsehood  and  crime  will  always  convict  itself,  be- 
cause it  rarely  ever  tells  one  steady  tale.  Gen.  Houston,  after  changing  his  de- 
fence, as  you  have  seen  FOUR  different  times,  comes  out  in  his  latest  publica- 
tion, and  for  the  FIRST  time  admits  that  "  he  wrote  the  letter  to  Capt.  Elliott." 
It  cannot  be  forgotten,  in  Texas,  how  often,  for  the  last  three  years,  both 
Gen.  Houston  and  his  partisans  have  denied  this  fact,  and  it  would  have  been 
better  for  him  always  to  have  denied  it ;  for  then  many  of  his  blinded  friends 
would  either  have  believed,  or  professed  to  believe,  that  he  never  had  writ- 
ten it. 

"  Fellow  citizens,  the  vind'ictiveness  of  Gen.  Houston's  last  defence  can 
only  be  equalled  by  his  stupidity.  If  the  plunder  of  Laredo  had  been  a  suf- 
ficient cause  for  the  decimation  of  your  countrymen,  and  I  had  been  the 
'first  to  incite  the  men  to  that  plunder,'  why  did  not  Santa  Anna  have  me 
shot  ?  His  personal  hostility  to  myself  for  the  last  ten  years  was  well  known, 
and  the  slightest  pretext  would  have  been  sufficient  for  him  to  have  practised 
his  bloody  vengeance  upon  my  person.  If  Gen.  Houston's  charge  be  correct, 
I  ask,  in  the  name  of  common  sense,  why  it  was  that  innocent,  unoffending 


32 

men,  were  made  to  pay  the  penalty  of  my  crime?  Why  it  was  that  Majors 
Cocke  and  Dunham,  Captains  Cameron  and  Eastland,  Este,  Hams,  Jones 
and  Mahan,  Ogden,  Roberts,  Rowan  and  Shepard,  Thompson,  Torry,  Trum- 
bull,  Wing,  and  the  *  iron  nerved '  Whaling,  were  made  to  pay  the  penalty  of 
my  wrong-doing  ?  This  charge,  like  a  badly  counterfeited  dollar,  carries  its 
own  condemnation  upon  its  face,  and  I  should  not  have  deemed  it  worthy  of 
notice  but  to  show  the  recklessness  of  one  who  scruples  at  no  falsehood  to 
serve  his  ambition  and  hatred. 

"  Fellow  citizens,  what  Gen.  Houston  asserts  in  his  letter,  about  promptly 
furnishing  the  Mier  prisoners  in  Mexico  with  the  supplies  which  Congress  had 
voted  them,  is  as  untrue  as  the  balance  of  his  letter,  and  I  will  take  the  jour- 
nals of  Congress  and  his  own  letter  to  prove  it.  The  facts  are  these : — Early 
in  December,  1843,  and  soon  after  the  meeting  of  Congress,  the  destitution 
of  our  countrymen  in  Mexico  was  pressed  upon  the  attention  of  Congress  by 
myself,  the  Hon.  Wm.  E.  Jones,  S.  H.  Maverick,  and  others,  who  had  tasted 
some  of  the  sweets  of  a  Mexican  prison.  To  the  honor  of  that  Congress,  be 
it  known,  no  time  was  lost  in  voting  $15,000  for  their  relief,  under  the  re- 
quirement that  it  should  be  forthwith  furnished  them.  It  was  then  deemed 
best  by  the  Congress,  for  the  good  of  our  countrymen  in  prison,  that  this 
law  should  not  be  made  public  at  the  time.  About  two  months  after,  and  at 
nearly  the  close  of  the  session,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  was  called 
upon  by  myself  and  others,  to  know  what  had  been  done  in  carrying  out  this 
law.  To  our  surprise  and  mortification  we  were  informed  that  not  a  dollar 
had  been  sent  them,  and  no  measures  taken  to  send  them  one.  We  saw  then, 
full  well,  that  President  Houston  would  cloak  his  vindictive  dereliction  of  duty 
under  a  law  then  not  designed  to  be  made  public;  and  just  before  the  close 
of  the  Congress  another  law  was  passed,  in  open  session,  appropriating  an 
additional  $15,000.  This  law  was  passed  without  the  repeal  of  the  former, 
and  thus  the  Congress,  under  full  consideration  for  the  eminent  services  of 
these  men,  voted  $30,000  to  their  relief.  We  come  now  to  the  question,  how 
much  of  this  money  was  sent  these  men,  and  when  it  was  sent  to  them  ? 
Gen.  Houston  tells  you  in  his  letter,  that  on  the  19th  of  October,  1844,  one 
draft  was  drawn  for  $3,740.  Mark  the  time — this  is  ten  months  and  a  half 
from  the  passage  of  the  law.  But  he  says  that  he  sent  Mr.  Potter  as  a  spe- 
cial agent  (Mr.  Hargous  refusing  to  act  as  such),  with  $2,500.  Now  I  ask 
the  question  of  every  Mier  man,  did  they  ever  receive  one  dollar  of  this  ap- 
propriation while  in  prison?  No !  On  the  16th  of  September,  the  survivors 
were  turned  loose  at  the  gates  of  Perote,  like  so  many  cattle,  with  the  excep- 
tion that  the  *  magnanimous  Mexican  nation '  gave  each  man  one  silver  dollar 
to  bear  his  expenses  to  Texas.  With  that  silver  dollar  they  started  home, 
and  at  Jalapa,  for  the  first  time,  they  were  furnished,  through  Mr.  Hargous, 
$2,000.  These  are  the  historical  facts  of  the  case,  proved  by  the  acts  of 
Congress,  now  upon  your  statute  book,  the  assertion  of  every  Texian  then  in 
Perote,  and  the  confessions  of  Gen.  Houston's  own  letter.  Was  there  any 
possible  excuse  for  this  cruel  delay,  even  had  Mr.  Hargous  refused  to  act  as 
our  agent  ?  Was  Mr.  Hargous  the  only  man  in  Mexico  through  whom  money 


33 

could  be  transmitted?  Or  was  it  at  all  necessary  that  we  should  have  an 
agent?  I  say  not!  and  Gen.  Houston  knew  full  well,  that  in  one  week  from 
the  passage  of  that  act,  he  could  have  placed  the  money  in  some  responsible 
house  or  bank  in  New  Orleans,  and,  with  a  certificate  of  deposit  and  author- 
ity sent  to  Gen.  Fisher,  or  Quarter-Master  Fenton  M.  Gibson,  or  any  other 
officer  in  the  Castle  of  Perote,  to  draw  for  the  same,  could  have  been  cashed 
in  one  hour  at  that  place,  at  a  premium  of  six  per  cent.  Thus,  with  this 
small  paper,  which  could  have  been  sent  to  them  in  twenty  days  from  the 
passage  of  the  act,  every  $100  on  deposit  in  New  Orleans  would  have  been 
worth  to  them,  in  their  cheerless  and  destitute  prison,  $106! 

"  But,  fellow-citizens,  in  these  long  ten  months  of  withholding  the  bread 
of  your  dying  countrymen,  did  President  Houston  hear  no  complaints'from 
them  ?  Yes !  not  a  sail  that  crossed  the  Gulf  which  did  not  bring  from  the 
miserable  cells  of  Perote  the  lamentations  of  the  sick  and  dying ;  and  the 
bones  of  eighty-odd  noble  souls,  now  scattered  from  the  bottom  of  the  great 
ditch  of  Perote,  to  nearly  every  prison-yard  in  Mexico,  are  evidence  of  'Presi- 
dent Houston's  friendship  for  the  Mier  men.'1  Did  President  Houston  hear  no 
other  complaints  from  the  Mier  men  ?  Yes,  indeed,  be  it  told  to  their  eternal 
honor !  though  it  has  been  well  said  that  starvation  for  the  want  of  food  is 
the  greatest  subduer  of  the  physical  man,  yet,  when  these  noble  countrymen 
of  ours  heard  that  President  Houston  had  his  commissioners  across  the  Rio 
Grande,  signing  their  country  away  as  the  '  DEPARTMENT  OP  TEXAS,'  though 
they  were  at  that  time  living  skeletons,  and  daily  depositing  some  of  their 
comrades  in  that  horrible  ditch,  they  nobly  wrote  home,  which  should  be 
written  in  letters  of  gold  and  engraven  upon  every  patriot's  heart,  *  Let  no 
consideration  of  us  forfeit  your  country's  honor:  let  us  rot  in  these  dungeons  ere 
you  concede  one  inch  to  these  colored  barbarians.'' 

"  All  this  is  only  equaled  by  one  thing  in  the  conclusion  of  Gen.  Houston's 
letter,  which  I  must  think  caps  the  climax  of  every  assertion  and  assumption 
of  his  whole  life,  to  wit : — that  '  1  lie  day  will  come  when  it  will  le  shown  that 
he  obtained  the  release  of  the  Mier  prisoners.1  This  beats  *  Coquetting '  about 
Annexation  so  far  that  I  cannot  well  conceive  how  his  most  devoted  followers 
can  read  it  with  becoming  gravity.  *  The  day  will  come.'  Was  there  ever 
so  propitious  a  day  for  Gen.  Houston  to  prove  that  thing  as  now,  when  the 
separate  nationality  of  Texas  is  merged  in  this  great  confederacy,  and  when 
he  is  staking  every  thing  for  a  seat  in  that  dignified  branch  of  the  Congress 
of  this  Union,  which,  should  he  succeed,  it  cannot  fail  to  experience  the  dis- 
grace of  that  success. 

"  Fellow-citizens,  so  much  for  Gen.  Houston  and  the  Mier  men ;  and,  in 
conclusion,  I  must  crave  your  further  attention  to  that  part  of  his  letter  per- 
sonal to  myself.  Gen.  Houston  says,  that  in  the  sacking  of  Laredo,  I  was 
'the  first  man  who  broke  open  a  house  and  incited  the  men  to  outrage.'  I 
know  not  what  milder  epithet  to  give  to  this  charge,  than  to  say  it  is 
maliciously,  infamously  false.  It  is  known  by  the  whole  army,  that  on  the 
day  of  the  sacking  of  Laredo,  I  did  not  leave  the  camp,  which  was  three 
miles  below  the  town,  and  that  when  those  that  had  participated  in  the  sack- 

3 


34 

ing,  returned  to  the  camp,  I  was  among  the  most  active  in  getting  them  to 
return  the  articles  to  Gen.  Somerville's  quarters,  to  be  re-delivered  to  the 
alcalde,  and  the  well  known  fact  that  every  Mier  man,  with  many  others,  did 
so  return  them,  relieves  them  from  Gen.  Houston^  charge  of  crime,  if  crime  it 
was.  That  some  who  returned  from  Laredo  with  Col.  Bennett  did  not  return 
the  articles  taken  from  the  town  is  also  well  known.  These  men  are  known 
to  be  Gen.  Houston's  warmest  friends,  and  they  must  settle  with  him  this 
high  charge  of  robbery  which  he  brings  against  them.  I  will,  however,  de- 
fend these  friends  of  Gen.  Houston  against  his  wholesale  denunciations. 

"  On  the  8th  of  December,  1842,  General  Somerville's  forces  arrived  at  the 
town  of  Laredo,  after  seventeen  days'  march  from  their  camp  upon  the  Me- 
dina ;  having  exhausted  the  whole  of  more  than  three  hundred  beeves  which 
they  started  with  from  the  San  Antonio,  General  Somerville  made  a  requisition 
for  eight  or  ten  beeves,  which  was  barely  rations  for  one  day,  and  then  took 
the  backward  track  for  home.  The  men  had  been  promised  supplies  upon 
the  Rio  Grande,  and  now  found  that  promise  neglected.  They  had,  by  every 
law  of  war  and  nature,  a  right  to  be  fed ;  and  if  the  General  did  not  do  it, 
through  his  commissariat,  they  were  reduced  to  the  alternative  of  doing  so  of 
their  own  accord,  though  with  becoming  patience  they  awaited  a  whole 
day  for  the  General  to  comply  with  his  promise,  and  did  not  attempt  to  sup- 
ply themselves  until  he  had  made  a  retrograde  march  of  three  miles  home- 
wards. That  these  men  took  articles  useless  and  unbecoming  soldiers,  was 
more  the  fault  of  their  General,  in  not  telling  them  what  was  lawful  to  take, 
than  in  their  not  knowing  what  was  so  lawful  by  the  usages  of  war.  Now, 
I  will  ask,  did  President  Houston  inform  these  men  what  was  proper  by  the 
laws  of  war  to  take,  when  in  his  address  to  the  people  of  Texas,  in  July,  1842, 
he  called  upon  them  to  *  to  pursue  the  enemy  into  his  own  country,  and  chastise 
him  for  his  insolence  and  wrongs?  No !  These  are  his  identical  instructions, 
published  in  all  the  newspapers  of  the  day.  '  The  Government  (says  Presi- 
dent Houston)  will  promise  nothing  hut  authority  to  march,  and  such  supplies 
of  ammunition  as  may  ~be  needful  for  the  campaign.  They  must  look  to  the  valley 
of  the  Rio  Grande  for  remuneration — 2  he  Government  mil  claim  no  portion  of 
the  spoils  ;  they  will  ~be  divided  among  the  victors.  The  flag  of  Texas  will 
accompany  the  expedition.1  Thus  much  for  President  Houston's  calumny  of 
the  sacking  of  Laredo  ;  and  while  the  Texian  army  has  been  in  the  invariable 
habit,  during  our  revolution,  of  quartering  upon  our  own  citizens  while  in  the 
field,  he  would  have  them  starve  while  in  an  enemy's  country,  though  called 
there  by  his  own  proclamation. 

"  Fellow  citizens,  the  manner  in  which  General  Houston  has  lugged  Mr. 
Hargous  into  his  letter,  shows  a  vindicative  hatred  of  that  gentleman,  which 
he  (Houston)  has  manifested  in  several  of  his  veto  messages  on  those  laws  of 
your  Congress  which  provided  to  pay  him  the  money  he  furnished  our 
countrymen  of  the  Santa  Fe  Expedition,  while  in  Mexico.  "Wherefore,  I  ask, 
has  General  Houston  thus  formally  brought  Mr.  Hargous  before  his  govern- 
ment ? — There  can  be  but  one  answer. — It  is  the  same  manifestation  of  his 
murderous  intent  which  caused  him  to  write  to  Santa  Anna,  that  the  "  Mier 


35 

men  had  gone  into  Mexico  without  authority  of  lew  ;"  and  while  I  trust  that  the 
fatal  consequences  of  his  Mier  letter  may  not  befall  this  excellent  gentleman, 
it  is  due,  both  to  him  and  myself,  to  state  the  particulars  of  a  transaction  for 
which  President  Houston,  in  January,  1844,  received  the  unanimous  rebuke 
of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  Texas. 

"  The  facts  are  these,  fellow  citizens  : — In  June,  1843,  while  in  the  castle 
of  Perote,  I  received,  as  was  known  to  all  my  companions,  several  letters  from 
my  brother,  Colonel  C.  P.  Green,  of  N.  C.,  saying,  that  in  July  he  would  come 
to  Mexico,  to  see  how  he  could  best  serve  me.  On  the  2nd  of  that  month, 
not  content  to  await  the  arrival  of  my  brother,  I  escaped  from  prison,  with 
fifteen  of  my  countrymen.  After  weeks  of  suffering  in  the  mountains,  myself, 
Captain  C.  K.  Reese,  and  Interpreter  Dan  Drake  Henrie,  of  Brazoria 
county,  Rd.  Barclay,  and  R.  Cornegay,  of  Fayette  county,  and  John  For- 
rester, of  the  town  of  Houston,  met  in  disguise  in  the  city  of  Vera  Cruz* 
Captain  Reese  had  been  provided  with  some  means  through  his  father's  fac- 
tor in  New  Orleans,  and  Mr.  Hargous  furnished  me  with  $130,  and  I  became 
responsible  for  the  balance  of  the  passages  of  my  comrades  on  board  the 
steamer  Petrita,  to  New  Orleans,  which,  in  all,  amounted  to  $280.  I  dis- 
tinctly told  Mr.  Hargous  that  it  was  more  than  probable  I  would  meet  my 
brother  in  New  Orleans,  and  in  expectation  of  which,  I  would  draw  for  the 
$280  upon  him ;  but  at  the  same  time,  I  would  draw  a  duplicate  draft  upon 
the  Government  of  Texas,  that  for  a  like  purpose  General  McLeod  and  Col- 
onel Cooke  had  drawn  the  year  previously  in  his  favor,  for  the  Santa  Fe  pris- 
oners, for  several  thousand  dollars ;  that  I  was  satisfied  that  General  Houston 
would  neither  pay  the  one  or  the  other,  for  he  never  was  known  to  pay  his 
own  debts  voluntarily,  and  rarely  under  any  circumstances,  but  that  the 
Texas  Congress  would.  When  we  sailed  on  the  Petrita,  John  Forester  pre- 
ferred to  work  his  passage  as  fireman,  thereby  reducing  my  indebtedness  to 
Mr.  Hargous  to  $255.  On  my  arrival  at  New  Orleans,  I  had  sufficient  money 
to  pay  for  the  use  of  a  bed,  and  a  drink  of  grog  each.  The  next  day,  through 
the  kindness  of  my  friends,  Col.  W.  M.  Beal  and  Charles  Duroche,  I  was 
enabled  to  furnish  some  of  them  still  farther.  In  a  few  days  after,  we  sailed 
for  Texas,  I  becoming  individually  responsible  for  passages  of  four  to  Captain 
Ferguson.  Upon  my  arrival  in  New  Orleans,  instead  of  meeting  my  brother, 
as  I  expected,  I  received  the  melancholy  intelligence  that  he  was  upon  his 
death-bed,  and  from  which  he  never  arose.  This  fact  was  known  to  the 
supercargo  of  Mr.  Hargous,  in  Orleans,  and  at  my  request  he  sent  the 
duplicate  draft  to  the  Government  of  Texas,  which  he  accompanied  with  some 
stupid  complaints  of  my  brother  not  meeting  him  in  Orleans.  At  this 
time  I  was  a  member  of  Congress,  and  had  exposed  Houston's  murder  of  our 
decimated  Mier  men,  and  all  other  of  his  mal-practices  coming  under  my  knowl- 
edge, with  that  unreserve  well  known  to  you  all.  Upon  the  receipt  of  this  draft 
for  $280,  expended  upon  our  suffering  countrymen,  President  Houston  laid 
it  before  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  a  special  message,  with  reflections 
against  myself.  Upon  the  presentation  of  which,  the  House  unanimously 
.refused  to  receive  his  message,  and  ordered  the  Clerk  forthwith  to  return  it 


36 

to  him  :  thus  rebuking  him  in  a  manner  never  known  before  or  since  in  the 
history  of  the  Texian  Congress.  Did  the  Congress  stop  here  ?  No  !  the  draft 
for  the  $280  was  incorporated  in  Mr.  Hargous'  Santa  Fe  outlay,  without  one 
dissenting  vote  ;  and  if  that  gentleman  has  not  yet  received  his  whole  dues,  it 
has  been  on  account  of  the  constant  hostility  of  Presidents  Houston  and  Jones, 
which  their  veto  messages  will  prove.  —  For  these  facts  I  refer  to  the  journals 
of  Congress  and  the  Hon.  Wm.  E.  Jones,  who  was  chairman  on  the  Commit- 
tee, as  well  as  to  every  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  chal- 
lenge their  denial. 

THOMAS   J.  GREEN. 


Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  senator  has  for  the  first  time 
admitted  that  he  wrote  the  fatal  letter  ;  but  in  this  he  again 
attempts  to  charge  the  consequence  of  that  murderous  "  black 
bean  lottery,"  first,  to  the  sacking  of  Laredo  by  his  own 
friends  and  neighbors  ;  next,  to  Gen.  Hunt's  letter  of  the  18th 
of  January,  1843  ;  and,  last,  to  the  rising  of  our  prisoners  upon 
their  guards.  For  a  more  full  understanding  of  the  truthful- 
ness of  his  assertions,  I  herewith  append  the  certificate  of  Capt. 
Samuel  G.  Norvell,  than  whom  a  braver  soldier  or  better 
patriot  was  never  in  the  Texas  army.  Before  doing  so,  let  me 
call  attention  to  this  military  pretender's  idea  of  an  "  armistice." 
He  says,  "  They  had  violated  the  armistice  granted  to  them, 
and  for  that,  and  nothing  else,  they  were  punished."  Now 
there  never  was  an  armistice  granted  them  /  and  if  there  had 
been,  it  would  necessarily  have  expired  upon  the  signing  of 
the  articles  of  capitulation.  That  men  loaded  with  irons, 
driven  and  herded  like  cattle,  could  violate  a  parole,  by  strik- 
ing for  their  liberty  against  three  times  their  number  of  armed 
guards,  is  something  new  in  the  science  of  war  ;  and  I  should 
like  to  know  in  what  book  this  "  COMMANDEE-IN-  CHIEF  "  found 
such  law.  The  only  parole  ever  granted  to  a  "  Mier  prisoner," 
was  to  Gen.  Fisher  and  myself,  by  Col.  Savriego,  on  our  march 
from  Matamoras  to  Monterey.  This  parole  we  could  have 
easily  broken,  and  gained  our  liberty  thereby  ;  but  I  am  sure 
that  either  of  us  would  have  preferred  death.  I  knew  that  I 
was  being  carried  to  an  implacable  enemy,  Santa  Anna,  and 
my  friends  believed  that  my  life  would  be  the  forfeit.  But  to- 
Capt.  Norvell's  certificate. 


37   - 

"AUSTIN,  TEXAS, 

"Oct.  29th,  1854. 
•"To  Gen'l  Thomas  J.  Green, 

"Dear  Sir:— 

"  Having  read  Senator  Sam  Houston's  late  attack  upon  you  in  the  United 
States  Senate,  in  which  he  denounces  as  untrue  your .  work  upon  the  '  Mier 
Expedition,'  and  endeavors  to  exculpate  himself  by  charging  Gen.  Memucan 
Hunt  as  the  cause  of  the  decimation  of  the  'Mier  Prisoners,'  and  the  murder 
of  the  brave  Capt.  Ewin  Cameron ;  and  having  carefully  examined  all  the 
evidences  in  this  matter,  from  page  450  to  461,  in  your  work,  all  of  which  I 
know  to  be  true,  I  feel  it  due  to  yourself  and  the  public  to  make  this  further 
unsolicited  statement,  to  which  at  any  time  I  am  ready  to  testify. 

"I,  as  one  of  the  sixty-seven  'Bexar  prisoners  of  war,'  who  surrendered 
to  Gen.  Adrian  Woll,  of  the  Mexican  army,  in  September,  1842,  at  the  city 
of  San  Antonio,  was  marched,  with  my  comrades,  through  Mexico  as  far 
as  the  city  of  Queretero,  where  I  was  left  sick.  Through  the  intercession  of 
friends,  upon  my  recovery  I  was  released,  and  proceeded  to  the  city  of  Mexico, 
where,  for  the  first  time,  I  heard  of  the  capture  of  the  *  Mier  Prisoners,'  their 
decimation,  and  the  shooting  of  Capt.  Cameron.  I  went  immediately  to 
Gen.  Waddy  Thompson,  the  American  Minister,  to  know  more  of  this  mel- 
ancholy news.  He  told  me  that  it  was  too  true,  and  that  President  Sam 
Houston's  letter,  written  through  the  British  legation,  at  Galveston,  to  Mexico, 
was  the  cause  of  it.  I  replied  that  it  was  impossible  that  the  President  of 
Texas  could  have  written  such  a  letter.  He  answered,  go  to  the  British  min- 
ister and  see  for  yourself.  I  went  immediately  to  see  Mr.  Packenham,  the 
British  Minister,  and  upon  my  announcing  myself  as  one  of  the  released 
Texian  prisoners,  he  inquired,  Did  you  know  Captain  Cameron,  and  was  he 
the  bloody  robber  he  is  represented  to  be  ?  I  answered  that  I  knew  Captain 
Cameron  well ;  had  served  in  the  army  with  him,  and  that  a  purer  gentleman 
and  better  patriot  and  soldier  never  fought  for  his  country.  Upon  this  the 
tears  trickled  down  the  cheeks  of  that  gentleman,  and  he  said,  I  fear  the 
worst  has  not  come  for  your  unfortunate  countrymen.  This  letter,  by  the 
authority  of  your  President,  has  done  all  the  mischief,  and  President  Santa 
Anna  claims  the  full  privilege,  under  it,  of  shooting  the  whole  of  your  men. 
I  read  particularly  this  letter,  which  you  refer  to  in  your  book,  and  which 
your  correspondence  with  the  American  and  British  ministers  show  that  it 
was  on  file  at  that  time.  As  for  General  Hunt's  having  written  a  letter  to  a 
Texas  newspaper,  I  can  say  that  neither  myself  or  any  one  with  whom  I 
conversed  with  in  Mexico  ever  heard  of  it.  I  will  add,  that  both  Gen. 
Thompson  and  Mr.  Packenham  promised  to  use  their  best  endeavors  to  pre- 
vent the  farther  slaughter  of  our  men,  and  the  sequel  shows  with  what  good 
success.  That  they  deserve  the  lasting  gratitude  of  all  true-hearted  Texians, 
no  honest  man  will  doubt. 

"  Very  respectfully,  your  ob't  serv't, 

"S.  G.  NORVELL." 


..  38 

The  following  resolution,  offered  by  myself,  in  Congress,. 
Dec.  22d,  1843,  page  66,  Journal  House  of  Representatives, 
will  show  that  they  were  not  forgotten,  as  it  passed  unan- 
imously : 

"  Mr.  Green,  from  the  Select  Committee  to  whom  was  referred  sundry 
papers  concerning  our  own  prisoners  of  war,  in  Mexico,  offered  the  following 
resolution,  to  wit : — 

"  Resolved,  That  the  gratitude  of  this  nation  is  due  to  the  Hon.  Waddy 
Thompson,  United  States  Minister  in  Mexico,  and  her  Majesty's  Charge  d* 
Affairs,  the  Hon.  Percy  TV.  Doyle,  and  also  her  Britannic  Majesty's  late  Minis- 
ter, Mr.  Packenham,  for  their  active  interference  in  behalf  of  our  fellow- 
countrymen,  while  prisoners  of  war  in  Mexico ;  and  that  the  thanks  of  this 
House  be  unanimously  tendered  them  therefor,  and  that  they  be  furnished 
with  copies  of  this  resolution." 

The  Senator  has  devoted  a  large  portion  of  his  pamphlet 
speech  to  disprove  what  I  have  charged  upon  him,  to  wit :  that 
he  was  the  malicious  cause  of  the  murder  of  the  "decimated 
Mier  men."  In  his  speech,  he  says, 

"  I  could  appeal  to  an  honorable  gentleman  from  Texas,  now  present  in 
this  chamber  (General  Memucan  Hunt).  The  capture  took  place  on  the  26th 
of  December.  On  the  18th  of  January  following,  General  Hunt,  who  had 
been  out  in  the  campaign,  who  had  marched  as  a  private  soldier  under  Gene- 
ral Somerville,  who  had  won  the  admiration  of  the  whole  army  by  his  soldier- 
like, manly,  and  chivalrous  conduct,  wrote  an  account  as  to  the  scenes  at 
Mier,  in  which  he  bore  testimony  to  all  that  I  have  said.  He  came  to  Hous- 
ton, in  Texas,  and  published  to  the  world  the  facts  connected  with  the  Mier 
expedition ;  he  showed  that  it  had  gone  unauthorizedly  ;  he  did  not  condemn 
it,  but  merely  gave  the  historical  facts.  That  was  on  the  18th  of  January,  so 
that  by  the  end  of  the  month  the  news  would  be  in  the  pdsses'si6n  of  Santa 
Anna  ;  and  yet  he  suspended  all  vengeance  until  March  afterwards,  and  until 
the  rising  of  the  prisoners  upon  the  guard.  What,  then,  was  the  use  of  the 
President  of  Texas  saying  it  was  against  law?  Was  it  not  known  by 
General  Hunt's  letter  (in  which  he  detailed  the  facts),  that  Colonel  Fisher, 
Green,  and  others,  had  deserted  from  the  command  of  Gen.  Somerville,  when 
ordered  to  the  interior  of  Texas,  had  united  to  maraud  upon  Mexico,  had 
crossed  the  Rio  Grande  without  authority  of  law,  and  in  open  violation  of  or- 
ders, had  taken  possession  of  Mier,  and  that  a  battle  ensued." 

I  will  prove  by  the  letters  of  Capt.  Norvell,  Col.  Fisher, 
and  the  American  and  British  ministers,  that  Gen.  Hunt's  letter 
to  a  Texas  newspaper  had  nothing  to  do  with  this  most  hellish 
murder.  Col.  Fisher  and  his  brother  officers,  writing  from  the 


39 

Castle  of  Perot e,  on  the  26th  day  of  July,  1844,  one  year  and 
a  half  after  the  date  of  Gen.  Hunt's  letter,  says, — "  I  have  re- 
ceived the  paper  containing  Gen.  Hunt's  letter ',  and  I  can  see  in 
it  nothing  to  give  the  slightest  foundation  for  the  charge  of 
Sam  Houston." 

The  Senator  here  makes  General  Hunt  accuse  the  "  Mier 
men"  of  uniting  to  "  maraud  upon  Mexico,  and  that  they  had 
crossed  the  Rio  Grande  without  authority  of  law"  Gen.  Hunt 
having  permitted  this  speech  to  go  forth  to  the  world  and 
widely  circulated,  I  am  to  presume  that  it  has  his  sanction,  or 
he  would  have  corrected  it  months  ago.  On  two  previous 
occasions,  both  in  1844  and  '46,  I  defended  Gen.  Hunt  before 
the  public,  from  this  charge,  which  Houston  had  made  against 
him,  of  being  the  cause  of  the  "  decimation  of  the  Mier  Men" 
Gen.  Hunt  himself  denounced  Houston  in  severe,  though  just 
terms,  for  this  charge.  The  facts  are  these :  that  so  far  from 
crossing  the  Rio  Grande  in  violation  of  law  and  orders,  Presi- 
dent Houston,  on  the  27th  of  January,  1844 — page  376  of  the 
Journals  of  the  House  of  Representatives — forgetting  his  fre- 
quent denials  upon  this  subject,  in  a  veto  message  says,  "In 
an  address  to  the  people  of  Texas,  dated  July,  1842,  and  pub- 
lished in  the  newspapers  of  the  day,  the  Executive  remarked, 
in  reference  to  the  contemplated  expedition,  that  <  the  Govern- 
ment will  promise  nothing  but  authority  to  march,  and  such 
supplies  of  ammunition  as  may  be  useful  for  the  campaign  .They 
must  look  to  the  valley  -of  the  Rio  Grande  for  remuneration. 
The  Government  will  claim  no  portion  of  the  spoils — they  will 
be  divided  among  the  victors.  The  flag  of  Texas  will  accom- 
pany the  expedition."  Again,  in  the  same  message,  he 
reiterates,  "  he  plainly  told  them  they  must  look'  for  remuner- 
ation to  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande?  "  It  will  be  recollected 
that  these  proclamations  from  President  Houston  were  numerous, 
and  under  which  we  assembled  to  defend  western  Texas.  Gen. 
Hunt  knew  these  facts. '  He  also  knew  that,  by  the  law  of 
1840,  volunteers  had  the  right  to  elect  their  own  commanders. 
My  work  upon  this  expedition  shows  that  General  Somerville 
had  marched  a  competent  force  to  Laredo  (not  as  the  Senator 
falsely  says  in  his  speech),  "  MANY  miles  on  the  east  side  of  the 
Rio  Grande"  but  immediately  upon  the  east  bank  of  said  river, 


40 

is  the  town  of  Laredo.  General  Somerville  here  got  sight  of 
the  enemy,  and  commenced  a  homeward  retreat.  In  this  re- 
treat  he  was  arrested  by  the  unanimous  voice  of  the  army, 
after  he  had  proceeded  several  miles.  He  then  said  that  the 
army  could  elect  a  commander ;  that  he  would  be  among  those 
who  would  "*lleach  his  bones  upon  the  plains  of  Mexico."  The 
army  then  re-elected  him  under  this  pledge.  He  moved  down 
the  east  bank  of  the  river,  until  he  reached  a  point  opposite 
Guerrero,  and  crossed.  Here  he  again  got  a  view  of  the  enemy, 
and  then  falsified  his  word  by  a  precipitate  retreat  homewards. 
This  is  a  fact  well  recollected,  that  when  he  recrossed  the  river 
homewards,  there  was  no  man  more  loud  against  this  cowardly 
movement  than  Gen.  Hunt ; — and  on  that  very  night  the  army 
was  stimulated  to  elect  a  new  commander  by  Gen.  Hunt,  which 
they  had  a  right  lawfully  to  do,  and  which  they  did  do.  Gen. 
Hunt  was  a  candidate  for  the  command,  and  made  as  many 
promises  of  "  bone  bleaching  "  as  any  of  us ;  but  he  was  not 
elected.  Next  morning  the  General  was  among  the  first  to 
saddle  his  horse  for  home ;  he  then  found  out  it  was  necessary 
to  obey  the  defunct  Gen.  Somerville's  orders.  Instead  of  Gen. 
Hunt  being  where  the  Senator  places  him,  in  the  situation  of 
giving  a  "  correct  account  of  the  scenes  of  Mier"  he  was  fol- 
lowing his  home-sick  leader  through  bog  and  chapparal,  within 
hearing  of  our  cannons'  thunder.  His  friend  and  messmate, 
Capt.  Bartlett  Sims,  informed  me,  that  such  was  their  destitu- 
tion, they  had  to  stew  up  raw  hides,  of  which  their  packs  were 
made,  to  subsist  upon.  Under  these  circumstances,  let  every 
sensible  and  impartial  reader  say,  who  were  the  deserters !  Was 
it  General  Somerville  and  his  two  hundred  followers  who  ran 
home  from  the  sight  of  the  enemy ;  or  was  it  the  three  hundred 
and  twenty -four  men  who  agreed  to  stand  their  ground  and 
fight  ?  In  my  knowledge  and  reading  of  war,  the  "  Mier  men" 
are  the  first  to  desert  from  a  run-away  general,  by  standing 
their  ground  andjfighting  an  overwhelming  enemy. 

It  is  passing  strange  that  General  Hunt  should  have  per- 
mitted himself  to  be  thus  abused  by  the  Senator.  A  few  weeks 
after  the  delivery  of  this  speech,  while  on  my  return  from 
Texas,  I  met  Gen.  Hunt  upon  a  railroad  in  North  Carolina, 
and  he,  for  the  first  time,  told  me  that,  "  the  damned  old 


41 

villain,  Sam  Houston,  had  the  audacity  to  allude  to  him.  in  his 
speech  against  you.  You  know  that  I  have  not  spoken  to  him 
for  six  years,  and  that  I  have  denounced  him  as  severely  as 
ever  you  did.  Demolish  him  ;  I~know  you  have  the  evidence  to 
do  it"  This  was  Gen.  Hunt's  opinion  of  the  Senator  in  August 
last,  soon  after  his  speech  was  delivered  against  myself. 

The  following  extract  from  General  Memucan  Hunt's  letter 
to  General  Sam  Houston,  dated  October  30th,  1849,  and  pub- 
lished in  the  "  Texas  State  Gazette,"  of  November  10th,  page 
91,  will  show  what  General  Hunt's  opinion  of  the  Senator  was 
at  that  date : — 

"  Your  overbounding  ambition,  added  to  your  jealousy  and  selfishness , 
has  so  uniformly  prompted  you  in  this  propensity,  that  you  are  notorious  in 
Texas  as  having  reviled,  traduced,  and  calumniated,  or  threatened,  as  in  your 
judgment  you  thought  most  politic,  the  character  of  almost  every  man  who 
has  obtained  any  favorable  reputation  for  himself  and  his  country,  either  in 
connection  with  its  revolt,  the  acquisition  of  its  independence  from  Mexico,  or 
subsequent  annexation  as  a  state  of  the  United  States.  To  prevent  the  least 
misapprehension  of  the  justness  of  my  assertions,  I  will,  with  your  leave,  make 
the  following  applications  and  references,  namely :  Have  you  not  hushed  your 
insidious  attacks,  either  of  ridicule,  slander,  or  threats,  or  all  of  them,  by 
making  assertions  to  those  who  were  your  menials,  and  whom  you  knew 
would  repeat  the  same  after  you  (and  make  it  more  public  and  effective  for 
your  purpose  than  if  published  in  newspapers),  or  by  messages  in  a  similar 
manner,  as  you  recently  sent  openly  and  publicly  to  me  by  Major  Neighbours, 
traducing  them  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  their  usefulness  and  in- 
fluence, as  you  have  done  of  Col.  Austin,  the  father  of  Texas;  Governor 
Smith,  Provisional  Governor  in  1835 ;  Ex-President  Burnet,  and  Lorenzo  de 
Zavalla,  Vice  President,  ad  interim,  of  Texas;  Ex-President  Lamar;  Ex- 
President  Jones ;  the  late  venerable  Richard  Ellis,  President  of  the  Conven- 
tion which  formed  the  Constitution  of  the  late  republic  of  Texas ;  the  late 
William  and  John  Wharton ;  the  late  gallant  Travis,  and  Fannin,  and  Crock- 
et, and  Brenham,  and  Walker,  Genl.  Burleson,  Col.  Frank  Johnson,  Col. 
Sherman,  Dr.  Branch  T.  Archer,  Gen.  A.  Sydney  Johnson,  late  Sterling  C. 
Robertson,  Judge  Megison,  Leonard  Groce,  Col.  Henry  Jones,  Col.  Morgan, 
late  Bailey  Wardaman,  Gov.  Wood,  Col.  Bell,  Governor  elect ;  Ex-Lieutenant 
Governor  Horton,  Dr.  Levi  Jones,  late  Gen.  Wm.  S.  Fisher,  late  J.  T.  Van 
Zanett,  late  S.  Rhodes  Fisher,  Gen.  Tom  Green  of  Fayette,  Judge  Webb,  Ex- 
Governor  Henderson,  George  W.  Smyth,  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land 
Office;  Col.  Caldwell,  Judge  Richard  Scurry,  Col.  Barnard  E.  Bee,  Gen. 
James  Hamilton,  A.  T.  Burney,  late  Richard  Morris,  Gen.  Cazineau,  Gen. 
Chambers,  Gen.  Thomas  Jeff  Green,  Col.  Latimer,  Judge  Franklin,  Gen.  Por- 
tis,  late  Dr.  Tom  Anderson,  Commodore  Moore,  late  Judge  Jack  Todd  Robin- 


42 

son,  Judge  Ochiltree,  Judge  W.  E.  Jones,  late  Col.  Wm.  G.-  Cpoke,  late  Col. 
James  R.  Cooke,  Col.  Samuel  M.  Williams,  Judge  W.  Munifer,  late  Richard 
Dunlap,  late  Richard  Bullock,  Gen.  Felix  Huston,  late  Major  Ben.  Fort 
Smith,  late  Josiah  Bell,  Judge  John  B.  Jones,  Gen.  McLeod,  Dr.  Gideon 
Williams,  Col.  Ira  R.  Lewis,  Col.  Robert  Williams,  Robert  Mills,  Major  Mont- 
gomery, Judge  Mills,  Judge  Robert  Williamson,  Ex-Governor  Runnels,  Col.  Oli- 
ver Jones,  Dr.  Francis  Moore,  jun.  Indeed,  General,  who  is  there  that  you  have 
spared?  Do  not,  however,  understand  me  as  being  the  defender  of  all  the 
acts  of  all  these  gentlemen ;  but  I  will  venture  the  assertion  that  there  is  not 
one  of  them  whose  character  in  private  or  public  life,  or  either,  or  both,  as  the 
case  may  be,  would  not  bear  a  fair  and  advantageous  comparison,  now,  if 
living,  and,  at  their  death,  if  they  are  no  more,  with  your  own.  There  is  no 
one,  indeed,  in  public  life,  who  has  dared  to  oppose  your  mandates,  or  even 
express  a  difference  of  opinion  to  yours ;  nor  is  there  any  in  private  life,  pos- 
sessing influence,  who  opposed  your  will  and  wishes,  but  have  been,  more  or 
less,  your  victims,  in  the  manner  above  referred  to.  It  is,  sir,  proverbial  in 
Texas,  that  the  lowest  compliment  that  can  be  bestowed  on  an  old  public  offi- 
cer, or  an  influential  gentleman  in  private  life,  in  Texas,  is,  that  General  Sam 
Houston  has  never  denounced  him  in  a  manner  before  named." 

If  I  recollect  rightly,  this  was  not  only  Gen.  Hunt's  opinion 
of  the  Senator  in  1849,  but  with  every  change  of  season  since 
the  commencement  of  the  Texas  Revolution  to  the  present 
time,  his  denunciation  has  been  as  strong,  or  his  friendship 
oppositely  warm.  I  do  not  envy  the  amiability  of  General 
Hunt,  and  confess  that  my  nature  is  of  sterner  stuff.  My 
friendship  was  far  beyond  the  reach  of  President  Houston's 
official  bribery.  I  have  uniformly,  and  on  all  occasions,  op- 
posed his  corruptions  and  denounced  his  villanies. 

I  recollect  last  winter,  when  General  Hunt  was  a  Member 
of  the  Legislature  from  Galveston,  he  had  with  him  the  orphan 
son  of  the  late  gallant  Colonel  "William  R.  Cook,  who  he  pub- 
licly and  repeatedly  charged  President  Houston  of  having  had 
assassinated.  In  this  belief,  however,  General  Huut  is  far  from 
being  alone.  . 

The  Senator's  charge  of  my  "  having  filched  a  good  deal  of 
money  out  of  benevolent  individuals,  while  a  prisoner  of  war 
in  Mexico,"  is  as  unmitigated  a  slander  as  could  have  been 
invented  by  his  black  heart.  I  had  money  frequently  offered 
me  in  Mexico,  but  never  accepted  a  dollar,  except  from  three 
individuals,  to  wit — J.  P.  Schatzell,  of  Matamoras ;  S.  L.  Har- 
gous ;  and  Governor  F.  M.  Dimond,  (now  of  Rhode  Island,) 


43 

-but  then  United  States  Consul  at  Vera  Cruz.  The  circum- 
stances of  my  receiving  aid  from  these  excellent  gentlemen,  are 
•these :  After  the  capitulation  of  Mier,  we  were  marched  via 
Matamoras  to  the  city  of  Mexico  and  Perote*  Upon  reaching 
Matamoras,  Mr.  J.  P.  Schatzell.  a  wealthy  and  benevolent 
merchant,  and  an  old  friend  of  the  Hon.  J.  J.  Crittenden,  with 
the  permission  of  General  Ampudia,  furnished  Lieutenant,  now 
Major  George  Crittenden  of  the  Kifles,  with  means.  Mr. 
Schatzell  also  insisted  that  I  should  take  from  him  a  sufficient 
amount  to  carry  myself  and  rother  officers  through  our  long 
tirid  tedious  journey.  I  accepted  only  four  hundred  dollars,  for 
which  I  receipted,  he  insisting  upon  my  taking  a  much  larger 
sum,  and  was  perfectly  willing  to  await  the  result  of  Texas 
success  for  his  pay.  Before,  however,  leaving  Matamoras,  he 
placed  in  my  hands  an  unlimited  letter  of  credit,  to  draw  upon 
him  if  we  required  a  further  amount;  Upon  reaching  Monterey, 
'I  called  upon  his  correspondent,  and  received  three  hundred 
.dollars,  making  in  the  aggregate  seven  hundred  dollars,  every 
•cent  of  which  was  expended  in  common  for  myself  and  com- 
rades on  our  long  march  of  more  than  two  thousand  miles  to 
the  Castle  of  Perote.  The  Congress  of  Texas,  in  1844,  not  only 
recognized  this  debt  of  Mr.  Schatzell,  but  on  the  last  day  of  the 
session — page  470  of  the  Journal  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives— upon  my  motion,  the  House  unanimously  passed  the 
following  resolution : — 

"  Mr.  Green^  ly  leave,  introduced  the  following  resolution  : 
"  Be  it  resolved,  ~by  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Republic  of  Texas  in 
'Congress  assembled,  That  the  thanks  of  this  house  be  tendered  to  J.  P.  Schat- 
zell, Esq.,  of  Matamoras,  for  the  uniform  kindness  and  liberality  extended  by 
"him  to  our  unfortunate  fellow  citizens,  while  prisoners  in  Mexico." 

.-.  The  next  money  I  "  borrowed "  in  Mexico  was  from  our 
avhole-souled  American  citizen  Mr.  L.  S.  Hargous,  then  of  Yera 
.Cruz,  whose  heart'  is  as  large  as  his  purse.  It  was  under  these 
circumstances :  I  was  a  prisoner  heavily  ironed  in  the  Castle  of 
Perote,  and  nearly  starved,  as  were  my  comrades,  through  the 
neglect  and  baseness  of  President  Houston.  Mr.  Hargous 
I  had  never  seen,  and  he  sent  me  one  hundred  dollars ;  my 
journal  will  show  how  this  sum  was  nsed.  After  my  escape 


4:4: 

from  the  Castle,  I  reached  Yera  Cruz  with  five  of  my  com- 
rades who  had  escaped  the  pursuit  of  Santa  Anna's  guards. 
Mr.  Hargous  gave  me  thirty  dollars  more,  and  an  order  for 
myself  and  companions  to  go  to  the  United  States  on  board  of 
his  steamer  Petrita — so  that  amount  of  money  and  passages 
made  the  sum  of  $280,  which  I  drew  upon  Texas  for,  in  favor 
of  Mr.  Hargous,  which  amount  was  promptly  acknowledged 
by  the  Texas  Congress  and  incorporated  with  the  amount  of 
$8,000,  which  this  gentleman  had  the  year  previous  advanced 
to  Generals  McCleod  and  Cook  for  the  Santa  Fe  prisoners. — 
My  publication  of  the  10th  January,  1846,  above  copied,  fully 
explains  this  transaction,  and  page  399  of  the  Journals  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  shows  the  truth  of  my  statement — 
that  though  it  was  an  administration  Congress  I  denounced 
President  Houston  from  my  place  in  the  house,  .as  a  "  Hack- 
Jiearted  murderer  and  villain  /"  yet  that  house  unani- 
mously sustained  me  by  having  the  papers  forthwith  returned 
to  the  President.  I  subsequently  visited  the  city  of  Mexico, 
in  1849,  and  enjoyed  the  open  hospitality  of  Mr.  Hargous,  who 
thanked  me  in  the  warmest  manner  for  my  active  services  in 
the  Texas  Congress  in  procuring  the  law  for  his  payment.  In 
this  connection  I  will  relate  an  incident  which  that  excellent 
gentleman  told  me  at  that  time.  It  is  this.  Upon  the  arrival 
of  the  steamer  of  Mr.  Hargous  in  Orleans,  some  imprudent 
one  of  my  comrades  let  it  be  known  to  the  papers  that  we  had 
escaped  out  of  Mexico  on  board  said  steamer.  The  conse- 
quence was,  that  upon  the  return  of  the  steamer  to  Yera  Cruz, 
she  was  seized  by  order  of  President  Santa  Anna,  and  Mr. 
Hargous  went  in  person  to  the  President  to  procure  her  resto- 
ration. The  President  put  Mr.  H.  upon  his  honor  as  a  gentle- 
man, to  say  whether  he  knew  of  my  being  on  board  of  his 
steamer  when  she  left  port.  Mr.  H.  answered  promptly  in  the 
affirmative,  and  asked  the  President  if  their  positions  were 
reversed,  would  he  have  done  likewise  for  his  countrymen. 
Santa  Anna  said  he  would,  and  forthwith  ordered  the  release 
of  the  steamer.  This  transaction,  so  honorable  in  Mr.  Hargous 
as  a  true  American,  is  not  less  noble  in  the  President  of 
Mexico. 

I  come  now  to  the  third  and  last  person  who  I  "  filched," 


money  of,  in  the  language  of  the  senator,  while  in  Mexico.  It 
was  Governor  F.  M.  Dimond,  of  Rhode  Island,  then  the  United 
States  Consul  at  Yera  Cruz — a  better  man  or  truer  American 
never  held  office  under  his  government.  The  following  cor- 
respondence between  Governor  Dimond  and  myself  will  ex- 
plain this  transaction. 

"  NEW  YOKK, 
"January  24th,  1855. 

"  DEAR  SIR — At  the  last  session  of  Congress  I  was  charged  by  a  speech  in 
the  United  States  Senate,  of  borrowing  money  by  false  representations,  while 
a  prisoner  of  war  in  Mexico.  The  only  three  persons  I  ever  borrowed  money 
of  while  a  prisoner,  were  J.  P.  Schatzell,  of  Matamoras,  yourself,  and  L.  S, 
Hargous,  of  Vera  Cruz. 

"  I  request  you  to  state  the  circumstances  of  our  transaction. 
"  Very  respectfully, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  THOS.  J.  GREEN. 
"  To  Governor  F.  M.  DIMOND, 

"  Bristol,  Rhode  Island." 

"  BRISTOL,  R.  I., 
"  January  29,  1855. 

"  DEAR  GENERAL — I  received  yours  of  the  24th  instant,  requesting  me  to 
state  to  you  the  circumstances  under  which  you  borrowed  money  from  me. 
I  cheerfully  comply  with  your  request  by  stating  the  facts  as  I  recollect  them. 

"  I  was  U.  S.  Consul  at  Vera  Cruz,  in  1843.  In  the  month  of  July,  I  think, 
of  that  year,  I  heard  of  your  miraculous  escape,  with  fifteen  others  of  your 
comrades,  from  the  strong  (and  by  Mexicans  considered  impregnable),  castle 
of  Perote.  Some  weeks  after,  yourself,  Capt.  Dan  Drake  Henrie,  Capt.  C.  K. 
Reese,  and  several  others  of  your  escaped  comrades,  notified  me  of  your 
whereabout*  in  Vera  Cruz ;  after  night-fall  I  visited  your  gloomy  and  horrid 
abode  ;  to  have  done  so  in  open  day,  would  have  been  destruction  to  you  and 
certain  ruin  to  myself.  I  knew  you  only  from  character  and  that  you  were 
my  countryman  in  danger  and  distress,  and  when  you  visited  my  office  under 
the  cover  of  night,  I  offered  you  all  the  aid  in  my  power  ;  you  availed  your- 
self of  my  offer,  (I  thought  too  modestly  for  your  necessities),  observing  that 
you  all  could  go  to  New  Orleans  in  the  steamer  of  a  friend,  on  credit.  I  fur- 
ther state,  and  do  so  with  great  pleasure,  that  you  paid  it  back  to  me  the  first 
opportunity,  after  your  return  to  the  United  States,  and  that  you  were  the 
wry  first  of  the  numerous  Texan  prisoners  to  whom  I  loaned  money,  who  paid 
back  the  demand. 

"  With  great  respect, 

"  I  am  your  friend, 

"F.  M.  DIMOND. 
"  General  THOM.  J.  GREEN, 

"  New  York. 


46 

True,  it  would  have  been  destruction  to  myself ;  for  there 
was  a  price  upon  my  head.  I  had  committed  the  heinous 
offence,  when  my  parole  was  refused,  in  violation  of  the  usages 
of  civilized  warfare,  of  throwing  off  my  irons,  and,  with  a  por- 
tion of  my  comrades,  performing  an  escape  (in  the  opinion  of 
the  greatest  military  captain  of  this  age,  Gen.  Winfield  Scott) 
"  more  difficult  than  that  of  Baron  Trenck."  It  is  the  opinion 
of  such  men  in  military  matters  as  Generals  Scott  and  Worth, 
that  a  soldier  estimates  above  price  ;  and  while  this  military 
buffoon,  this  '''''bleating  cub"  Gen.  Houston,  has  the  low  mean- 
ness to  disparage  the  battle  of  Mier,  these  great  leaders  pro- 
nounce it  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  in  the  annals  of  war. 
Gen.  Scott  said  that  "  I  recollect  of  no  such  battle  ;  that,  Con- 
sidering all  things,  the  advantage  of  the  enemy  in  position,  his 
superior  force  of  3,000  to  260,  the  nineteen  consecutive  hours 
during  which  the  battle  raged,  the  execution  done  upon  each 
side  (their  official  reported  loss  730,  and  known  to  be  greater), 
to  11  killed  and  23  wounded,  astonishes  me,  and  does  immor- 
tal honor  to  your  Spartan  band." 

But  to  return  to  Governor  Dimond.  How  can  I  sufficient- 
ly express  the  gratitude  of  Texas,  or  my  own  admiration  of  his 
noble  conduct.  Upon  my  arrival  in  Yera  Cruz,  incog.,  he 
came  every  night  to  see  me  with  the  consolations  of  his  repub- 
lican countenance,  and  the  full  freedom  of  his  purse.  Such 
officers  do  honor  to  their  country,  and  deserve  the  gratitude 
of  every  lover  of  liberty.  Nor  was  Texas  forgetful  of  his  many 
kindnesses  to  her  suffering  countrymen  while  prisoners.  Her 
resolutions  of  thanks,  and  the  compliment  of  a  league  and 
labor  of  land,  show  how  his  services  were  estimated. 

"What  the  senator  says  of  my  vote  for  Congress  in  1846  is 
new  to  me.  If  I  received  forty-three  votes  for  Congress,  they 
were  forty-three  more  than  I  desired  to  receive.  My  name 
was  before  the  people  of  Texas  for  a  time  ;  but,  finding  that  I 
could  not  return  to  the  State,  it  had  been  withdrawn  by  niy- 
self  long  before  the  election.  I  find  in  page  31,  Journals  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  1st  Congress,  that  the  scattering 
vote  for  President  in  1836  was,  for  T.  J.  Green,  42  ;  T.  J.  Rusk, 
1 ;  and  B.  T.  Archer,  4.  These  votes  were  cast  for  me  with- 
out my  knowledge  or  desire,  and  is  what  the  senator  may  al- 
lude to. 


4:7 

The  senator  refers  in  complimentary  terms  to  the  late 
General  Fisher.  The  following  extract  from  a  letter  to  my- 
self, written  from  the  Castle  of  Perote,  will  show  Gen.  F.s' 
opinion  of  the  senator.  He  entertained  this  opinion,  from  the 
battle  of  San  Jacinto  until  his  death. 

"  CASTLE  OF  PEROTE, 

"  July  26th,  1844. 

"DEAR  GENERAL — Your  very  estimable  favor  of  the  15th  day  of  June  last, 
was  received  yesterday,  for  which  receive  my  thanks ;  it  is  the  second,  I  be- 
lieve, that  I  have  received  from  you  since  your  escape.  For  your  indefatiga 
ble  exertions  in  our  cause,  every  man  of  us  feels  properly  grateful.  Although 
unsuccessful  in  procuring  us  the  benefits  of  the  appropriation  of  Congress,  it 
has  been  occasioned  by  no  neglect  of  yours,  and  we  know  whom  to  hold  re- 
sponsible. Our  condition  is  bad  enough,  *  God  knows,'  but  still  we  have 
manly  pride  sufficient  to  bear  it,  and  not  to  trouble  the  ungrate^il  *  govern- 
ment and  people  of  Texas '  with  our  sufferings  and  repinings,  caused  by  too 
much  loyalty  and  fidelity  to  her  honor  and  true  interests.  Sam  Houston  and 
his  administration  cannot  bear  all  the  sins  of  Texas,  deeply  died  as  Tie  may  1e  in 
villainy  ;  for  I  consider  him  less  base  than  that  portion  of  the  population  who 
passively  tolerate  his  outrageous  acts,  and  still  better  than  those  who  approve 

his  course Capt.  Ryan  sends  his  respects  and  requests 

you  to  write  him.     All  hands  join  me  in  respects. 
"  I  remain  your  friend  and 

u  Obedient  servant, 

WILLIAM  S.  FISHER. 

General  Fisher  is  now  no  more ;  but  before  his  death  he 
stated,  in  an  address  to  the  public,  that  "  every  fact  set  forth 
in  my  work,  the  '  Mier  Expedition?  WAS  TKUE.".  He  objected 
only  to  some  deductions  bearing  upon  his  advocacy  of  the  sur- 
render of  Mier.  Whilst  I  believe  that  I  did  General  Fisher 
justice  in  that  work,  it  is  with  pleasure  I  defend  his  memory 
now  against  the  slanders  of  the  Senator.  General  Fisher  was 
the  first  captain  at  San  Jacinto  to  charge  the  enemy's  works. 
Here  he  witnessed  the  dastardly  cowardice  of  this  squalling 
peacock,  General-in-Chief  Sam  Houston,  which  he  then  de- 
nounced, while  he  praised  the  gallantry  of  Rusk,  Wharton, 
Lamar,  Sherman,  Burlison,  and  others ;  since  which  time  he 
has  been  one  of  the  few  with  honesty  and  boldness  enough  to 
denounce  Houston's  many  crimes  and  filthy  vices.  Such  virtue 
in  Fisher  he  (Houston)  could  no  more  forgive,  than  he  could 
change  his  own  corrupt  nature.  He  therefore  charges  upon 


48 

Fisher  and  myself  that  the  "  Mier  expedition  was  organized  to 
maraud  ivpon  and  plunder  Mexico"  He,  however,  in  the  next 
breath,  falsifies  his  accusation,  by  showing  that  we  did  take  and 
hold  undisputed  possession  of  Mier,  the  richest  town  upon  the 
Hio  Grande,  two  clays  previous  to  the  battle,  and  not  a  copper's 
worth  of  private  property  was  taken  by  any  one  of  our  com- 
mand. "What  the  Senator  says  of  my  participation  in  the 
sacking  of  Laredo,  he  knew  to  be  a  dirty  lie  when  he  gave 
utterance  to  it.  It  was  shown,  that  when  he  made  this  charge 
in  1845,  it  was  one  of  those  slanders  which  the  meanest  of  his 
partizans  did  not  credit.  It  was  shown  that  I  was  not  in  Laredo 
during  that  day,  but  was  at  the  camp  of  General  Somerville, 
several  miles  east  of  the  town,  and  that  mainly  it  was  through 
the  influence  and  energy  of  Fisher  and  myself  that  most  of  the 
articles  were  returned  to  General  Somerville's  head-quarters, 
to  be  returned  to  the  owners.  If  any  articles  were  carried  into 
Texas,  it  was  by  those  friends  and  neighbors  of  President 
Houston  who  returned  with  Colonel  Bennett  from  that  camp. 
That  any  one  of  the  Mier  men  ever  did  take  a  pin's  worth  of 
private  property,  either  at  Laredo  or  elswhere,  is  positively, 
maliciously,  infamously  false,  and  its  author  is  Sam  Houston, 
the  murderer  of  the  slandered.  I  understand,  however,  that 
he  pretends  to  give  as  his  authority  an  individual  by  the  name 
of  H.  Clay  Davis,  who  came  to  Texas  some  years  since,  repre- 
senting himself  as  the  nephew  of  Henry  Clay,  and  took  up 
with  a  Mexican  woman.  Page  142  of  my  work  shows  that  he 
was  the  only  American  citizen  who  ever  deserted  our  standard. 
That  page  thus  speaks  of  him  : — 

"  We  have  alluded  to  this  circumstance  as  the  first  and  last  instance  in 
our  whole  ^Revolution,  where  an  American,  born  and  raised  in  the  United 
States,  ever  deserted  our  standard  to  join  that  of  cur  Mexican  enemy,  and  it 
should  be  a  warning  to  others  against  a  too  intimate  Mexican  association." 

The  best  refutation  of  the  Senator's  slander  of  my  receiving 
$24,154  04  by  a  resolution  of  the  congress,  for  what  he,  Hous- 
ton, insinuates  was  a  false  charge,  is  contained  in  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  first  Congress,  Journals  House  of  Representatives, 
pages  164-5  and  272.  The  following  law,  which  was  passed 
in  accordance  with  these  proceedings,  approved  and  executed 


49 

"by  the  Senator,  then  President  of  Texas,  will  show  what  he 
thought  of  its  justice  at  that  time  : 

"Be  it  resolved,  &c., — That  the  President  be  and  is  hereby  authorized  to 
pay  to  Thomas  J.  Green,  or  order,  out  of  the  first  means  in  the  Treasury  or 
any  agency  of  Texas,  the  sum  of  $24,154  04,  together  with  the  damages  and 
cost  of  protest,  for  or  on  account  of  this  Government,  provided  the  said 
Thomas  J.  Green  shall  file  with  the  Executive  the  account  of  the  same,  report- 
ed to  this  Congress,  receipted  in  full. 

"  IRA  INGRAM, 
"  Speaker  of  House  of  Representatives. 

"RICHARD  ELLIS, 
"Pres.  Pro  tern,  of  Senate. 
"Approved,  Dec.  17th,  1836. 

"SAM  HOUSTON." 

I  was  paid  this  amount  by  the  President's  order  upon  David 
White,  the  Texas  agent  at  Mobile,  not  in  good  money,  which 
was  due  me,  but  in  Land  Scrip,  which  I  sold  at  ten  cents  per 
acre,  and  in  other  depreciated  stuff,  almost  valueless : — so  the 
amount  proved  nearly  an  entire  loss,  and  up  to  this  day  I  have 
never  been  a  supplicant  to  Congress  for  relief. 

The  Senator's  attempt  at  wit,  for  the  purpose  of  diverting 
serious  attention  from  what  I  have  said  of  his  two  fugitive 
slaves,  Tom  and  Esau,  pages  122-3,  is  pointless  and  stupid. 
What  I  have  related  of  them  is  literally  true.  I  might  have 
said,  with  equal  truth,  that  Esau  said  that  "he. did  not  so  much 
dislike  the  blasphemous  swearing  of  Old  Sam,  but  that  he  had 
to  sleep  with  him  of  nights,  and  scratch  his  back ; — this  was 
more  than  this  nigger  could  stand ; — I  just  as  leave  sleep  with 
a  dead  horse."  This  was  the  language  of  Esau,  the  "  Hack 
boy"  as  the  Senator  calls  him.  Boy,  indeed !  he  weighed  two 
hundred  pounds,  was  as  black  as  the  ten  of  spades,  as  greasy, 
and  nearly  as  filthy  as  his  old  master. 

I  have  learned,  but  for  the  truth  of  which  I  cannot  vouch 
that  the  senator,  in  some  northern  abolition  address,  said  he 
had  manumitted  his  slaves.  Up  to  the  period  above  referred 
to,  Tom  and  Esau,  with  the  exception  of  his  woman  and  chil- 
dren, were  the  only  slaves  President  Houston  claimed  to  own. 
We  have  seen  how  Tom  and  Esau  manumitted  themselves  by 
leg  bail ;  and  I  understand  that  it  is  a  fact  well  known,  that 
he  sold  Martha  Houston  and  children,  as  she  called  herself, 

4 


50 

and  put  the  money  in  his  pocket,  or  rather  in  his  belly. 
in  my  knowledge  of  physiology,  the  senator  is  the  only  animal 
that  feeds  upon  its  young,  with  the  exception  of  the  alligator. 
Providence  seems  to  have  supplied  the  latter  with  instinct  to- 
eat  only  a  portion  of  its  young,  to  prevent  an  increase  too 
great  to  be  subsisted.  Nature  has  not  been  so  bountiful  with 
the  senator.  In  the  absence  of  instinct  and  morals,  human 
nature  is  the  worst  of  brutes.  Thus  a  gormand  avarice  makes 
him  sell  and  eat  the  African  litter  and  the  mother  who  bare 
them,  while  we  have  seen  him  fly  from  his  Cherokee  wife  and 
papooses,  because  he  could  not  sell,  and  was  too  mean  to  feed 
them. 

I  said  in  the  above  paragraph,  that  these  were  the  only 
slaves  at  that  period  which  the  senator  claimed  to  own.  Whe- 
ther he  owned  these  lawfully  or  honestly  is  more  than  doubtful^ 
The  boy  Tom  was  a  kidnapped  slave  of  Colonel  Augustus  Als- 
ton, of  Tallahassee,  Florida,  and  had  been  run  into  Texas. 
Esau,  I  am  informed,  was  purchased  by  a  government  agent 
with  government  securities,  which  were  never  accounted  for. 
The  Journals  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  Ylllth  Congress, 
pages  87,  98,  and  104,  will  show  that  the  House  believed  he 
had  a  "  Cherokee  wife  and  children." 

"  Mr.  Lott,  by  leave,  offered  the  following  resolution,  to  wit : — 

"  Resolved,  ~by  the  House  of  Representatives,  That  the  President  be,  and  is 
hereby,  requested  to  furnish  this  House,  immediately  and  without  delay,  a 
copy  of  the  letter  of  the  King  of  the  Netherlands,  in  relation  to  the  marriage 
of  his  daughter ;  his  answer  thereto ;  also,  his  correspondence  with  the  for" 
eign  powers  now  in  treaty  with  this  Republic,  on  the  birth  of  his  son,  Sam. — 
Laid  upon  the  table  one  day. 

"  The  resolution  calling  upon  the  President  for  information  in  relation  to 
a  correspondence  with  the  King  of  the  Netherlands,  in  relation  to  the  mar- 
riage of  his  daughter ;  also,  to  the  birth  of  his  son,  Sam. — Read  second  time. 

"  Mr.  Lott  moved  its  reference  to  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations. — 
Lost. — Mr.  Cazneau  offered  the  following  amendment — after  the  word  *  Sam,' 
insert — lalso,  his  wife  and  children  in  tfle  Cherokee  Nation.1  Mr.  Rowett 
moved  its  postponement  until  next  day.  Mr.  Kendrick  moved  its  postpone- 
ment until  the  1st  of  June.  The  Ayes  and  Noes  being  called  thereon,  stood 
34  ayes  and  1  No. — Next  day — Mr.  Rabb  moved  to  strike  from  the  journals 
the  resolution  calling  upon  the  President  for  correspondence  with  the  King  of 
the  Netherlands  in  relation  to  the  marriage  of  his  daughter ;  also,  in  relation, 
to  the  birth  of  his  son  Sam,  with  the  amendment  of  Mr.  Cazneau. — LOST." 


51 

With  all  the  senator's  influence,  he  could  not  expunge  these 
proceedings. 

A  Mend  of  the  senator  onca  applied  to  few  for  a  letter  of 
recommendation  for  office.  The  letter  was  at  once  written^ 
warm  and  strong ;  but  no  sooner  was  the  applicant's  back 
turned  than  the  senator  wrote  to  the  party  telling  him  to  dis- 
regard the  former  letter,  that  the  applicant  was  unworthy,  etc. 
The  applicant  got  hold  of  the  last  written  letter,  put  it  in  his 
pocket,  and  asked  the  senator  if  he  had  ever  so  written.  With 
uplifted  eyes  and  hands,  he  protested  before  high  heaven  he 
never  had.  Whereupon  the  letter  was  produced.  The  senator 
looked  at  it  with  a  ghastly  grin,  and  replied :  "Drunk,  ~by  God  ! 
this  hand  may  have  written,  l)ut  this  heart  never  dictated  that 
letter,  my  dear  friend"  So  it  is  now  with  the  senator.  He 
doubtless  forgets  that  in' 1836,  while  he  was  abusing  President 
Burnet,  for  the  Santa  Anna  treaty,  he  wrote  me  a  letter  of 
eight  pages,  approving  in  his  highest  terms  of  eulogy  my  con- 
duct at  Yelasco,  in  relation  to  Santa  Anna,  which  he  now  so 
vehemently  abuses.  He  said — "  you  deserve  the  lasting  grati" 
tude  of  the  country  for  your  conduct  in  relation  to  the  pris- 
oner" It  is  the  opinion  and  approval  of  better  men  that  I 
value.  Gen.  Thomas  J.  Rusk  writes  me  thus  from  his  "  Head 
Quarters,  Victoria,  June  ~L5th,  1836  : 

"  DEAR  GEN'L. —  ...  I  would  have  liked  much  to  have  seen  you,  to 
have  tendered  to  you  in  person  the  expressions  of  my  gratitude  on  the  part 
of  the  people  of  Texas^  for  your  zeal  in  our  cause,  as  well  as  to  have  commu- 
nicated with  you  freely  upon  the  present  position  of  our  affairs.  The  gene- 
ral opinion  prevailing  that  our  difficulties  with  Mexico  have  terminated  is 
ill-founded.  We  now  as  much  underrate  as  when  I  saw  you  before,  we  over- 
rated the  enemy — and  we  have  but  a  short  period  to  organize  upon  the 
frontiers  a  sufficient  force  to  meet  the  enemy  in  another  campaign — when, 
beyond  doubt,  he  will  come  upon  us  with  redoubled  numbers.  I  have  re- 
ceived information  entitled  to  credit,  that  the  government  of  Mexico  have 
directed  Gen.  Filisola  to  disregard  any  treaties  entered  into  with  Santa 
Anna. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  great  respect, 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  THOMAS  J.  RUSK.." 
To  Brig'r  Gen'l.  T.  J.  GREEN." 

This  was  the  general  sentiment  of  the  country  at  that  time. 
I  had  been  to  the  United  States,  mortgaged  my  property,  raised 


52 

money,  recruited  men,  brought  into  the  field  munitions  of  war, 
and  provision  to  sustain  those  men.  A  portion  of  my  brigade 
and  my  supplies  had  already  reached  the  vicinity  of  General 
Husk's  Headquarters.  My  quarter-masters  were  directed  1y 
me  to  make  no  difference  in  the  issuing  of  provisions  between 
Gen.  Eusk's  brigade  and  my  own.  These  were  things  which 
an  honest  man  and  a  patriot  thanked  me  for,  because  these 
supplies  found  him  destitute,  and  the  government  wholly  un- 
able to  help  him.  His  letter  shows  that  his  forces  were  at  that 
time  reduced  to  less  than  four  hundred  men,  without  ammuni- 
tion or  provisions,  (except  green  beef,)  and  not  good  horses 
enough  to  send  expresses  through  the  country.  At  this  time  I 
had  been  ordered  by  President  Burnet  to  proceed  against  the 
Indians  on  the  upper  Brazos  with  that  portion  of  my  brigade 
which  had  landed  at  Yelasco.  I  promptly  proceeded  to  exe- 
cute said  order,  and  had  advanced  into  the  country  as  far  as 
Coles'  settlement,  some  hundred  and  twenty  miles,  through  a 
rainy  season  and  boggy  roads,  when  Gen.  Eusk's  despatch 
reached  me,  with  the  following  information,  which  I  give  en- 
tire, as  the  best  refutation  ,of  the  senator's  slander  about  my 
getting  near  the  Indians  and  then  turning  my  course.  Gen. 
Eusk,  in  sending  these  despatches,  informed  me,  that  he  had 
sent  Col.  Smith  and  Captain  Billingsly,  with  two  hundred 
mounted  men  in  the  direction  of  the  Indians  ;  and  requested 
me,  in  the  strongest  terms,  to  re-inforce  him  with  all  possible 
despatch.  I  would  have  been  recreant,  to  every  duty  of  patri- 
otism not  to  have  complied.  The  President  approved  and 
applauded  my  course  for  so  doing. 

"MATAMOKAS,  STATE  OF  TAMAULIPAS, 

June  9th,  1836. 
"Gen.  THOMAS  J.  RUSK. 

"  Dear  Sir:— The  messenger  who  carries  this  is  strongly  recommended  by 
all  the  friends  in  this  place.  The  news  he  carries  is  of  the  greatest  importance 
to  Texas.  In  God's  name  ~be  governed  ~by  it.  I  expected  to  have  carried  this 
news  to  Texas  myself;  but  to  have  been  made  prisoner  is  not  what  I  ex- 
pected. I  was  to  have  left  this  evening  by  the  assistance  of  the  friends  of 

our  cause.     At  12  o'clock  this  day,  I  have  been  called  up  by  Gen. , 

and  obliged  to  give  security  that  I  would  appear  at  any  time  I  was  called 
upon,  or  that  I  would  not  leave  the  city,  or  else  be  imprisoned  in  the  quartet 
Captains  Teal  and  Karnes  are  prisoners  also.  I  hope,  if  the  bad  faith  at  the 


53 

Mission,  Goliad,  and  elsewhere,  will  not  fully  open  your  eyes  to  the  perfi- 
diousness  of  these  unprincipled  wretches,  in  the  detention  of  our  Commis- 
sioners in  this  place,  as  well  as  myself,  and  four  of  my  men — all  with  pass- 
ports from  Gen.  Filisola — you  will  hereafter  act  on  principle  of  retaliation, 
regardless  of  consequences  to  us.  If  you  had  shot  the  officers  already  taken, 
I  have  no  doubt  this  second  attack  would  not  have  been  made.  The  infor- 
mation is  so  full  in  the  other  documents  or  letters,  that  it  is  not  necessary  for 
me  to  go  into  detail.  The  advice  given  in  them,  pay  all  attention  to ;  and,  for 
heaven's  sake,  pay  strict  attention,  and  profit  thereby.  To  Galveston  and 
Matagorda,  and  your  prisons,  look  well.  Our  situation  is  bad  enough,  but 
death  can  cure  our  troubles. 

"  I  am  your  enemy's  prisoner, 

"MAJOR  W.  P.  MILLER, 

Legion  Cavalry." 

"MATAMORAS,  June  9th,  1836. 

" My  Dear  Friend: — I  am  sorry  to  inform  you  of  our  unfortunate  situa- 
tion. We  are  detained  for  nothing  but  to  keep  you  ignorant  of  the  enemy's 
intentions.  They  will  soon  be  down  on  you  in  great  numbers.  Four  thou- 
sand will  leave  here  in  four  or  eight  days,  for  La  Baliia, — it  is  supposed  via 
Nueces  or  San  Patricio, — and  as  many  more  in  fifteen  or  twenty  days,  by 
water,  from  Vera  Cruz,  to  land  at  Conano  or  Brazos — not  yet  ascertained  at 
•which  place.  They  make  war  of  extermination,  and  show  no  quarter.  Now, 
my  dear  friend,  you  see  what  treating  with  a  prisoner  is.  But  you  must 
make  the  best  of  it.  You  can  fall  back  to  the  Colorado,  and  call  all  the  men 
to  the  field ;  for  if  you  do  not,  Texas  is  gone.  They  have  heard  that  the 
President  is  at  Velasco  with  a  very  weak  guard,  and  say  they  will  have  him  in 
less  than  two  weeks.  I  think  you  ought  to  send  all  the  prisoners  there  to  San 
Augustine,  for  safe-keeping.  You  will  have  from  7,000  to  10,000  troops  to 
contend  with,  many  of  them  cavalry,  to  be  well  mounted  to  murder  women 
and  children.  No,  soldiers !  You  must  not  spare  any  pains  for  the  sake  of 
saving  us.  We  are  willing  to  be  lost  to  save  Texas.  Our  soldiers,  march  to 
the  field,  and  there  defend  your  rights.  They  say  that  you  are  rebels ;  but  you 
must  show  them  that  you  are  soldiers,  and  know  how  to  defend  your  rights. 
Send  all  the  prisoners  to  the  east.  We  are  not  in  jail  yet,  but  to-morrow 
demand  our  passports  ;  as  soon  as  that  is  done  we  shall  have  quarters  in  the 
calaboose.  We  have  good  friends,  which,  at  present,  prudence  forbids  me 
to  name,  for  fear  of  detection.  Urea  is  Commander-in-chief  of  the  Mexican 
army,  and  says  he  will  not  stop  short  of  the  Sabine  river.  Be  not  discour- 
aged— poison  every  pool  of  water  in  the  road.  You  must  now  work  hard — 
work  as  well  as  fighting.  Blow  up  Goliad  and  Bexar ;  you  must  have  a 
sufficient  force  in  the  field  at  once,  and  we  will  whip  them  again.  Be  united ; 
but  do  not  let  the  people  of  the  United  States  know  what  kind  of  a  war  they 
make  of  it,  and  they  will  certainly  come  to  our  assistance.  I  do  not  consider 
our  lives  in  danger,  if  in  close  quarters.  Do  not  let  my  father  and  sister  know 


54: 

that  we  are  prisoners ;  if  they  do,  say  that  I  am  treated  well.  Remember  me 
to  Col.  Millard,  and  my  Lieutenant,  and  all  friends — tell  them  I  will  be  with 
them  soon.  To  give  you  as  much  information  as  possible,  my  letter  is  in  this 
small  hand,  and  bid  you  adieu  in  haste. —  Ourjcaute  for  ever  ! 

"Your  friend, 

"HENRY  TEAL." 

"  I  concur  with  all  that  has  been  stated  above  and  foregoing. — Your  obe- 
dient servant, 

"  H.  W.  KARNES,  Captain." 

"  A  true  copy  of  the  original,  signed  by  Captains  Teal  and  Karnes. 
"  HEAD-QUARRTERS,  VICTORIA, 
June  Vlih,  1836. 

"  THOMAS  J.  RUSK." 

Tliis  correspondence,  so  creditable  to  Major  Miller  and  Cap- 
tains Teal  and  Karnes,  our  commissioners,  who  had  been  sent 
by  General  Rusk  to  see  the  retreating  Mexican  army  evacuate 
Texas,  was  of  a  most  alarming  character.  They  knew  that  Gen- 
eral Kusk's  force  was  reduced  to  a  few  hundred  men,  and  des- 
titute of  supplies,  and  believed  that  their  President,  Santa 
Anna,  had  sailed  for  Mexico  ;'  and  hence  this  determination  to 
countermarch  upon  Texas.  Dates  will  show  that  this  deter- 
mination on  the  part  of  the  enemy  was  not  abandoned  until 
after  they  heard  of  the  retention  of  Santa  Anna,  at  Yelasco, 
and  the  arrival  of  my  brigade  with  abundant  supplies  for  the 
campaign.  Where  was  the  Senator  during  these  exciting 
times  ?  Either  hawking  Santa  Anna's  saddle  and  spurs  about 
the  United  States,  or  drunk  at  his  partner's  in  Eastern  Texas. 

The  Senator  again  invents  this  senseless  falsehood — "  He 
even  had  the  meanness  to  steal  women's  saddles"  The  follow- 
ing order  from  President  Burnet  to  myself,  will  show  by  what 
authority  I  acted  in  supplying  the  army  with  "  beef,  horses^ 
wagons,  <&c. ;" 

"  EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT, 

"  Velasco,  7th  June,  1836. 
"  To  Brigadier-General 

"  THOS.  J.  GREEN. 

"  SIR — You  will  take  the  forces  [assigned  to  you  at  this  place,  and  proceed 
with  all  practical  expedition  to  the  northern  frontier  of  our  settlements,  where 
several  small  tribes  of  Indians  are  said  to  have  concentrated  for  the  purposes 
of  depredation Should  circumstances  and  the  public  good 


55 

Tender  it  necessary,  you  will  press  horses,  provisions,  and  whatever  private 
property  may  be  required.  But  I  want  to  enjoin  upon  you  great  circumspec- 
tion in  the  exercise  of  this  harsh  power,  for  it  is  beyond  dispute  that  many 
shameful  abuses  have  been  practised  under  it.  Be  very  cautious,  therefore, 
to  whom  you  depute  an  authority  so  invidious  and  so  susceptible  of  perversion. 
"Wishing  you  and  your  companions  in  arms  a  successful  and  glorious  cam- 
paign, I  am, 

"Your  obedient  servant, 

"  DAVID  G.  BURNET." 

The  following  letter  will  show  with  what  promptness  I 
obeyed  the  above  order  of  the  President : 

"BRAZORIA,  June  12th,  1836. 
"  To  His  Excellency, 

"  DAVID  G.  BURNET, 

"  President  of  the  Republic  of  Texas. 

"  SIR — I  arrived  here  two  days  since,  and  found  not  a  horse  or  wagon  of 
any  description  with  which  to  transport  our  provisions.  After  much  difficulty 
in  sending  around  the  country,  I  have  succeeded  in  procuring  teams  to  trans- 
port about  half  of  my  provisions,  and  have  taken  up  our  line  of  march  via 
Columbia  and  San  Filipe,  to  the  seat  of  war.  My  present  force  at  this  place 
is  about  two  hundred  rank  and  file,  besides  the  100  mounted  men  under  Bre- 
vet-Brigadier Felix  Huston,  now  in  advance.  Further  news  arrived  here, 
stating  that  the  Indians  are  in  much  larger  numbers  than  was  reported  in 
your  despatches.  If  so,  it  will  be  prudent  for  the  troops  at  Coxe's  Point,  be- 
longing to  my  brigade,  to  be  ordered  to  advance  and  join  me,  as  I  understand 
it  is  probable  that  the  present  state  of  Gen.  Rusk's  command  may  place  it  out 
of  his  power  to  comply  with  your  requisition  for  the  100  mounted  men.  I 
would  further  suggest  whether  it  would  not  be  best  for  your  Excellency  to 
take  some  early  orders  upon  reinforcing  my  command  by  such  companies  as 
may  come  in  from  the  United  States  via  Red  River.  With  sentiments  of 
high  consideration, 

"  I  am,  your  obt.  servt, 

"THOS.  J.  GREEN, 
"  Brig.  Gen.  Texas  Army." 

Upon  the  receipt  of  Gen.  Husk's  letter  with  his  despatches 
from  Matamoras,  I  again  wrote  to  President  Burnet,  thus  : 

"  COLES'  SETTLEMENT, 

"  June  28th,  1836. 
'"  His  Excellency, 

"DAVID  G.  BURNET, 

"  Pres.  of  the  Republic  of  Texas. 

"  SIR — Enclosed  you  will  find  a  letter  from  Gen.  Rusk  to  me,  of  the  17th 
mst.  This  news,  is  unexpected  and  extraordinary,  and  under  any  circum- 


56 

stances  leaves  me  but  one  course,  and  that  to  meet  the  call  promptly  and 
without  hesitation.  It  is  proper  for  me,  however,  here  to  remark,  that  the 
spies  which  Gen.  Felix  Huston  sent  out,  bring  intelligence  that  the  Indian 
information  you  received  was  not  only  highly  colored,  but  much  magnified, 
and  that  the  Indians  had  disappeared  far  north  soon  after  their  depredations, 
and  that  they  had  not  been  in  large  numbers.  On  yesterday  I  despatched 
Brevet-Brigadier  Gen.  F.  Huston,  in  person,  to  Gen.  Rusk's  head  quarters, 
and  to-day  I  have  ordered  on  the  cavalry  under  his  command  ;  and  to-mor- 
row shall  follow  with  the  remaining  forces  under  my  command.  I  think  that 
from  the  turnout  hereabouts,  and  those  troops  just  now  arriving  from  the 
States,  we  will  have  from  1,500  to  2,000  men  in  the  field  in  fifteen  days.  I 
have  advised  Gen.  Rusk,  to  drive  back  all  the  cattle  to  the  east  of  the  Cola- 
rado,  and  make  that  our  strongest  line  of  defence.  We  ought  to  fight  the 
enemy  there,  and  if  we  do,  I  have  every  confidence  he  will  not  cross. 

"  I  have  had  much  difficulty  in  procuring  beef,  as  most  of  the  citizens 
upon  the  road  hide  out  their  cattle,  and  some  have  several  times  stolen  my 
teams.  But  now,  since  this  news,  they  begin  to  get  very  kind,  and  say  that 
they  will  feed  us  upon  the  Colorado,  for  their  horses  are  so  low  in  flesh  many 
cannot  again  run. 

"  Your  obedient  servant, 

THOS.  J.  GREEN, 
Brig.-Gen.  Texas  Army." 

In  the  execution  of  President  Burnet's  orders,  it  became 
my  unavoidable  duty  not  only  to  feed  my  men,  but  to  procure 
transportation.  Many  on  the  line  of  my  march  believed  that 
our  Mexican  difficulties  were  at  an  end ;  and  they  were  un- 
willing to  furnish  beef  or  horses  for  government  credit.  Those 
who  were  believed  to  be  the  best  friends  of  the  Mexicans  were 
the  first  to  refuse  our  troops  supplies.  Had  there  been  more 
such  patriotic  citizens  as  Dr.  Hoxie,  Col.  Coles,  Capt.  Swisher, 
Josiah  Bell,  Mrs.  Ebberly  and  Miss  Rebecca  Cummings,  and 
others,  I  would  not  have  been  compelled  to  have  pressed  a 
beef  or  a  horse  into  the  service.  As  it  was,  it  became  my  duty 
to  take  for  the  service  some  eight  or  ten  horses.  For  this  ser- 
vice I  detailed  Lieutenant,  now  Major  James  Scott,  the  United 
States  Post-office  agent  for  the  State  of  Texas.  He  was  charged 
in  his  duty  according  to  President  Burnet's  instructions  to  me. 
If  he  ever  took  a  "  woman's  saddle,"  it  was  in  violation  of  his 
orders,  (which  I  do  not  believe,)  and  for  which,  had  he  com- 
mitted such  an  outrage,  I  would  have  been  the  first  to  punish 
him  therefor.  Major  Scott  is  the  warm  personal  friend  of  the 


57 

senator,  and  enjoys  at  present  a  lucrative  office  through  his  re- 
commendation. The  senator  has  long  known  that  he  was  the 
officer  who  pressed  these  horses  into  the  service ;  and,  if  a 
woman's  saddle  was  taken,  it  was  the  work  of  his  friend.  I 
believe  it  a  most  unwitty  and  stupid  lie.  I  do  say  that  every 
beef,  and  horse,  or  other  property  that  was  taken,  was  re- 
ceipted for  at  the  highest  valuation,  and  Texas  has  paid  or 
acknowledged  the  debt.  I  was  particular  to  offer  receipts  at 
the  time.  Some  few  refused  ;  but  whenever  they  have  applied 
since,  I  have  most  cheerfully  furnished  them. 

I  must  take  leave  for  the  present  of  the  numerous  other 
minor  falsehoods  contained  in  the  senator's  speech.  They  have 
already  been  abundantly  refuted,  not  only  in  my  work,  but 
by  ex-Presidents  Burnet,  Lamar,  and  Jones,  Gen.  S.  H.  Foote's 
history  of  Texas,  Commodore  Moore,  Gen.  Hunt,  and  numer- 
ous other  writers  ;  whilst  I  notice  his  two  most  prominent,  to 
wit,  that  concerning  the  "  Texas  Bank  charter"  and  the  one 
about  the  broken  "  West  Florida  Bcmk." 

To  say  that  these  are  base  falsehoods,  is  to  use  language 
which  poorly  expresses  the  blind  malignity  and  infamous  pur- 
pose of  the  author.  They  are  HELLISH  LIES,  wholly  destitute  of 
the  shadow  of  truth  ;  and  hundreds  of  the  most  intelligent  men 
of  Texas  will  bear  testimony  to  this  assertion.  To  the  first  of 
these  calumnies  the  senator  has  devoted  a  large  portion  of  his 
speech.  He  evidently  feels  here  that  the  ground  is  soft  be- 
neath him,  and  "  hereby  hangs  a  tale" 

The  senator  has  been  charged  by  many  gentlemen  of  Texas, 
with  having  been  bribed,  while  President  of  that  Republic,  to 
sign  this  law.  "We  will  see  with  what  truth.  On  the  12th  of 
December,  1836,  see  journals,  House  of  Representatives -,  page 
261-2,  an  act  of  incorporation  styled  the  "  Texas  Railroad, 
Navigation  and  Banking  Company"  was  passed,  granting  to 
"  Branch  T.  Archer,  James  €ollingsworth,  and  their  present 
and  future  associates,  successors,  and  assigns,"  the  rights  and 
privileges  therein  set  forth.  The  i\±v&  present  associates  of  the 
petitioners,  Archer  and  Collingsworth,  were  Stephen  F.  Austin 
(the  father  of  Texas),  Ex-Governor  J.  Pinckney  Henderson, 
and  Thomas  F.  M'Kinney.  They  organized  after  the  adjourn- 
ment of  the  Legislature,  and,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out 


58 

in  good  faith  the  objects  of  the  charter,  invited  other  gentle- 
men of  influence,  both  in  and  out  of  Texas,  to  the  number  of 
sixteen,  to  an  equal  participation  of  its  benefits.  Among  those 
out  of  Texas,  were  Judge  James  H.  Gholson  and  Col.  0.  P.  Green, 
of  Virginia ;  Col.  "William  Christie,  of  New  Orleans ;  and, 
subsequently,  Gen.  James  Hamilton,  of  South  Carolina.  My- 
self, amongst  other  prominent  gentlemen  of  Texas,  were  of  the 
future  associates  ;  and,  amongst  the  Texas  associates,  the  per- 
sonal and  bosom  friend  of  President  Houston,  John  K.  Allen, 
applied  for  and  obtained  two  shares,  of  a  sixteenth  each,  one 
in  his  own  name,  and  the  other  in  Uank.  It  will  be  recollect- 
ed that  President  Houston  was  at  this  time  "  an  anti-bank, 
mint  drop  "  democrat ;  and  the  presumption  consequently  was, 
that  he  would  refuse  to  sign  any  bank  charter.  He  did,  how- 
ever, sign  this  charter,  with  its  large  banking  privileges.  This 
was  at  the  time  a  matter  of  general  surprise  ;  but  the  sequel  will 
explain.  By  the  terms  of  the  charter,  $25,000  dollars  were  to 
be  paid  as  a  bonus  to  the  State,  in  gold  or  silver,  within 
eighteen  months  from  the  passage  thereof,  or,  in  case  of  fail- 
ure, the  charter  was  to  be  forfeited.  Before  the  expiration  of 
the  eighteen  months,  a  new  Legislature  having  convened, 
enacted  a  law  requiring  the  paper  issue  of  the  Republic  (usu- 
ally called  star  money)  "  to  be  received  for  all  debts,  dues,  and 
demands  of  any  kind  whatsoever,  owing  or  coming  to  the  Re- 
public." Before  the  expiration  of  the  eighteen  months,  the 
Hon.  Branch  T.  Archer,  President  of  said  Banking  Company, 
presented  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  (the  Hon.  Henry 
Smith)  the  bonus  of  $25,000  in  the  star  money  of  the  Repub- 
lic. The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  acknowledged,  by  a  certi- 
ficate now  in  my  possession,  that  this  tender  was  duly  and 
lawfully  made,  but  that  President  Houston  had  ordered  him 
not  to  receive  any  thing  but  gold  or  silver.  This  was  a  few 
days  previous  to  the  expiration  of  the  eighteen  months,  with- 
in which  time,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  charter,  the  bonus 
was  to  have  been  paid.  The  day  before  this  tender  was  made, 
this  identical  President  Houston  offered  to  sell  to  the  said 
Branch  T.  Archer ',  President  of  the  said  Banking  Company r, 
the  identical  share  of  one  sixteenth,  which  the  said  John  K. 
Allen  had  obtained  in  Hank  from  the  original  grantees.  The 


59 

Hon.  Mr.  Archer,  as  pure  a  man  as  ever  lived,  suspecting  cor- 
ruption on  the  part  of  President  Houston,  indignantly  refused 
to  purchase,  even  at  the  low  price  of  $4,000,  when  said  shares 
had  been  a  short  time  previous  sold  at  from  $12,000  to  $20,000 
each.  President  Houston  had  retained  his  share  a  little  too  long  ; 
and,  failing  to  get  even  $4,000  therefor,  Ms  anti-lank,  "  mint 
drop" principles  turned  up  so  strongly,  that  he  ordered  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  receive  nothing  as  a  bonus  but 
gold  or  silver.  He  had  as  little  right  to  make  this  order  as 
his  brother-in-law  Bowles,  the  Chief  of  the  Cherokees.  The 
law  governed  the  case.  The  co-operators  complied  with  the 
law ;  and  no  lawyer  in  Texas,  or  out  of  it,  who  is  honest,  will 
hesitate  to  say  the  tender  was  legal,  and  therefore  all  the  rights 
under  the  charter  were  vested  in  the  Company.  The  Congress 
of  the  Eepublic  of  Texas,  subsequent  to  the  tender,  in  relation 
to  this  matter,  determined  that  they  could  not  interfere  with 
vested  rights,  and  that  to  determine  these  rights  was  the  pro- 
vince of  the  Judiciary.  The  constitution  of  the  (present)  State 
of  Texas  reiterates  this  principle  in  its  broadest  sense,  and 
guarantees  fully  all  the  rights  vested  by  the  Eepublic. 

The  Senator's  charge  that  I  sold  $28,000  of  this  stock,  is 
utterly  false ;  so  far  from  this,  I  have  never  sold  or  offered  to 
sell  one  dollar's  worth  to  living  man,  whilst  others  of  the  asso- 
ciation, amongst  whom  Lieut.  Gov.  Albert  C.  Horton,  Chief 
Justice  James  Collingsworth,  Thomas  F.  McKinney,  Samuel 
M.  Williams,  "Wm.  H.  Wharton,  James  Knight,  C.  P.  Green, 
and  others,  did  sell  all  or  portions  of  theirs,  at  prices  ranging 
from  $20,000,  down  ;  I,  on  the  contrary,  became  the  purchaser 
of  a  large  portion  of  this  stock,  for  which  I  paid  more  than 
$40,000,  as  my  receipts  and  certificates  will  show.  This  heavy 
loss  I  have  borne  for  eighteen  years,  without  complaint ;  and 
whilst  I  and  my  associates  have  secured  to  us  the  only  banking 
privilege  in  the  state  of  Texas,  we  have  made  no  effort  to  avail 
ourselves  of  these  chartered  rights,  in  opposition  to  what  might 
possibly  be  the  public  sentiment  of  the  state  ;  and,  whilst  I  be- 
lieve that  a  system  of  banking  in  all  of  her  sister  southern 
states  makes  it  necessary  for  Texas  to  adopt  and  foster  a  simi- 
lar institution,  I  have  not  attempted  to  thrust  it  upon  her  in 
advance  of  public  opinion.  Whatever  the  rights  of  myself  and 


60 

associates  may  be,  we  hold  them  lawfully  and  constitutionally  ^ 
and  we  will  thus  exercise  them,  or  not  at  all.  Thus  it  is  that 
the  Senator,  knowing  that  I  had  the  proofs  of  his  corruption  in 
my  possession,  has  devoted  so  large  a  portion  of  his  senatorial 
vindication  to  this  subject.  I  have  said  elsewhere  that  this 
peculation  and  stealing  was  an  every  day  business  of  President 
Houston.  Does  he  deny  that  he  advocated  the  removal  of  the 
seat  of  government  to  a  place  called  for  himself,  and  for  a 
large  number  of  town  lots  in  said  place  ?  If  he  does,  I  refer  to 
the  books  of  the  town  proprietors,  and  to  their  agent,  Major  J. 
S.  Holman,  who,  I  learn,  did,  by  order  of  said  proprietors, 
make  out  his  gratuitous  deeds,  Tor  which  he,  Houston,  never 
paid  a  dollar.  The  Senator,  in  his  "  /Stationery  Stud-Horse" 
letter  to  his  friend  William  Bryan,  says,  "  I  will  rely  upon  you 
in  all  things,  as  I  have  always  done,  and  will  only  say,  this  is 
a  <  Stationery '  Bill !  !  !  " 

What  does  the  Senator  mean  by  these  exclamations  ?  What 
does  he  mean  by  "  all  things  f  "  Have  they  any  reference  to 
a  duplicate  of  the  Land  Office  seal,  found  among  his  friend's 
papers,  amongst  which  was  this  honest  "  STATIONERY  "  Bill ;  or 
is  this  seal,  by  which  Texas  lands  can  be  created,  a  part  of  the 
"  STATIONERY  ? "  Where  is  the  Seal  ? 

The  other  of  the  Senator's  assertions,  that  I  purchased  a 
plantation  with  "  twenty  thousand  dollars  of  the  circulation  of 
a  broken  West  Florida  Bank,"  is  notoriously  false  as  any  one 
of  his  numerous  other  slanders.  I  can  appeal  for  the  truth  of 
this  assertion  to  the  present  Governor  of  Texas,  and  Judge 
Robert  J.  Townes,  Hon.  John  W.  Harris,  Hon.  James  C.  Wil- 
son, Dr.  Branch  T.  Archer,  and  every  other  gentleman  of  my 
very  extensive  acquaintance  in  Texas.  So  far  from  which,  I 
never  did  own,  directly  or  indirectly,  one  single  dollar  of  said 
paper,  neither  did  I  ever  circulate  one  dollar  thereof.  It  is 
true,  as  was  the  custom  then  and  now  in  Texas,  that  I  endors- 
ed some  few  of  these  bills, — the  circumstances  of  my  so  doing 
are  these :  Captain  Eed,  of  the  regular  army  of  Texas,  was  in- 
troduced to  me  by  our  mutual  friend  President  Lamar,  as  his 
warm  friend,  who  informed  me  he  had  some  West  Florida 
money,  which  was  perfectly  good,  but  that  he  could  make  no 
use  of  it  without  the  name  of  some  gentleman  well  known  in 


61 

Texas  ;  that  he  had  immediate  use  for  a  few  hundred  dollars, 
and  desired  me  as  a  matter  of  personal  favor  to  endorse  said 
bills,  which  I  did  for  him,  as  I  should  have  done  for  any  other 
gentleman  whom  I  looked  upon  as  an  honorable  man.  With- 
in a  day  or  two  subsequently,  Mr.  Thomas  F.  M'Kinney,  of 
Galveston,  informed  me  that  he  had  good  reason  to  suspect 
the  solvency  of  said  bank,  from  a  letter  which  had  accidental- 
ly came  into  his  possession.  I  went  immediately  to  Capt.  Red, 
and  made  him  cancel  my  endorsement.  Capt.  Red  informed 
me,  however,  that  he  had  lost  at  a  faro  bank  some  five  or  six 
hundred  dollar  bills,  and  promised  to  redeem  them,  so  that  no 
one  was  ever  the  loser  in  any  lonafide  transaction  in  receiving 

said  bills."  Bancroft  Libra- 

The  senator  has  told  one  truth,  and  only  one,  I  believe,  in 
his  whole  speech — it  is  this : — That  I  did  instigate  and  stimu- 
late the  Mier  prisoners  to  rise  upon  their  guards  and  obtain 
their  liberty  and  return  to  Texas.  At  the  battle  of  Mier,  Gen. 
Ampudia  promised  that  our  men  should  be  kept  upon  the  Rio 
Grande  until  an  exchange  could  be  effected.  No  sooner,  how- 
ever, than  the  Texians  were  cajoled  into  a  surrender  of  their 
arms,  they  were  informed  that  they  were  to  be  marched  some 
two  thousand  miles  to  the  interior,  either  to  the  city  of  Mexico 
or  the  Castle  of  Perote.  This  was  the  violation  of  promise,  so 
horrible  to  the  feelings  of  our  men,  that  they  naturally  spoke 
of  resistance  to  its  execution  whenever  an  opportunity  offered. 
The  senator's  two  bed-fellowTs,  Tom  and  Esau,  were  in  the  habit 
of  mixing  with  our  prisoners,  and  soon  communicated  these 
threats  to  Gen.  Ampudia,  who  sent  for  Gen.  Fisher  and  my- 
self, and  informed  us  that  we  should  be  held  as  hostages  for 
the  good  conduct  of  our  men — that  he  should  keep  us  under  a 
separate  guard  of  forty  men  one  day  in  advance  of  the  main 
body  of  the  prisoners,  and  if  they  made  any  attempt  to  over- 
power their  guards,  our  lives  should  be  the  forfeit ;  and  he 
directed  that  Col.  Savreigo  and  guards,  who  had  us  in  charge, 
should  take  us  by  the  prison  where  our  men  were  confined,  so 
that  we  might  inform  them  in  person  of  the  consequences  in 
which  such  an  attempt  would  involve  us. 

Believing,  as  I  did,  that  this  long  march  of  two  thousand 
miles,  and  "Mexican  humanity"  would  cause  a  loss,  by  the 


62  , 

most  horrid  suffering,  of  a  large  portion  of  our  men,  I  did  not 
hesitate  to  make  them  promise  me,  before  I  left  the  prison,  to 
lose  no  opportunity  of  effecting  their  escape,  regardless  of  any 
consequences  that  might  befall  my  person.  This  they  did  with 
tears  in  their  eyes,  and  hearts  bursting  with  anguish.  From 
my  then  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  country,  I  supposed  that 
the  crossing  of  the  Eio  Juan,  or  at  the  Kinconada,  would  be  the 
most  favorable  points  for  such  an  attempt.  Unforeseen  cir- 
cumstances however  prevented  the  consummation  of  this  ad- 
vice at  these  places,  and  it  was  not  until  the  main  body  of  our 
men  overtook  us  at  Salado,  that  the  plan  of  an  attack  was 
consummated.  That  plan,  as  is  known  to  Dr.  William  M. 
Sheppard,  late  Secretary  of  the  Texian  Navy,  and  other  officers 
present,  was  my  own.  The  whole  world,  with  the  exception  of 
their  calumniator,  senator  Houston,  awards  lasting  honor  to 
these  brave  men,  who  thus  struck  for  their  liberty  against  three 
times  their  numbers  of  armed  guards.  Had  the  whole  of  my 
plan  have  been  adhered  to,  of  never  leaving  the  main  road, 
four  days  would  have  taken  them  into  Texas,  without  the  loss 
of  a  man,  after  their  victory  was  gained  at  Salado.  Chance 
prevented  myself  and  other  officers  from  being  with  them,  or 
the  whole  of  that  plan  would  have  been  carried  out. 

The  Senator  in  his  speech  says  that  I  am  a  "  coward."  This, 
I  presume,  is  of  the  smallest  moment  to  the  United  States 
Senate.  It  is  what,  however,  those  who  know  me  as  well  as 
does  the  Senator,  will  not  believe.  Those  who  were  with  me 
at  Guerrero,  at  the  Alcantro,  Mier,  Salado,  Perote,  at  Bear 
River,  and  other  places  of  danger,  know  it  to  be  false. 

Even  the  Senator  himself  seems  to  have  changed  his  opinion 
upon  this  subject.  The  last  two  interviews  I  had  with  him  were 
in  the  spring,  1844:,  at  a  public  meeting  in  the  city  of  Galveston, 
Texas.  I  denounced  him  then  as  " villain  and  traitor"  and 
made  him  leave  the  stand,  fly  frbm  the  meeting,  and  seek  pro- 
tection under  a  lady's  roof.  The  next  interview  I  had  with  the 
Senator,  was  in  Barnum's  Hotel,  Baltimore,  at  the  Democratic 
Convention  in  1848,  in  the  presence  of  the  Hon.  Isaac  E. 
Holmes,  and  General  Daniel  M.  Baringer,  our  late  minister  to 
Spain.  There  he  "  took  the  door,"  with  the  haste  of  one  who 
wished  to  escape  the  explosion  of  a  powder  magazine.  Since 


63 

which  time,  to  quiet  his  nerves,  he  has  taken  to  the  cold  water 
cure ;  and  I  have  my  doubts  whether  the  hydropathy  of  the 
Brazos,  Colorado,  or  the  Jordan  itself,  will  keep  them  still. 
Speaking  of  the  Colorado,  reminds  me  of  an  incident  illustrative 
of  the  Senator's  benevolence.  In  1841  the  Senator  was  upset 
in  a  stage  and  thrown  into  the  Colorado  river,  at  the  town  of 
Bastrop,  and  not  knowing  how  to  swim,  under  the  unerring 
law  of  gravity  (whiskey  being  lighter  than  water),  he  floated 
down  the  river  some  distance,  in  a  nearly  drowned  condition, 
when  an  old  negro  man,  by  the  name  of  Sam  Banks,  plunged 
in  and  rescued  him.  The  Senator  was  taken  to  the  house  of 
Mr.  Noessel,  where  he  remained  some  weeks ;  but  before  leav- 
ing, he  requited  the  kindness  of  his  host,  by  swindling  him  not 
only  of  his  bill,  but  also  of  a  certain  "  Hooded  filly  "  belonging  to 
Mrs.  Noessel.  His  benevolence  was  more  manifest  when  he 
came  to  reward  the  heroic  old  negro,  who  had  risked  his  own 
life  to  save  that  of  the  Senator.  How  do  you  suppose  this  was 
done  ?  By  procuring  the  freedom  of  the  old  man  and  provid- 
ing him  a  competent  pension  the  remainder  of  his  days  ?  This 
was  the  natural  reward  which  any  gentleman  would  have  applied 
to  such  service.  Not  so  with  the  Senator.  I  am  told,  upon 
good  authority,  that  he  put  his  hand  in  his  pocket,  and  abso- 
lutely gave  his  rescuer  "  ONE  DIME  IN  SILVEK  !"  Last  summer 
he  passed  through  this  same  town  of  Bastrop,  where  this  poor 
old  negro  called  upon  him  for  charity,  when  the  Senator's 
heart,  after  fourteen  years'  expansion,  did  give  the  old  negro  a 
silver  half  dollar,  which  he  threw  under  his  feet  with  contempt, 
and  died  within  a  few  weeks  thereafter,  saying  up  to  the  day 
of  his  death,  "  If  God  would  forgive  him,  he  never  would  do 
the  lilce  again  ;  that  he  thought  it  was  a  gentleman,  and  not 
OLD  SAM,  he  was  pulling  out  of  the  river" 

These  facts,  disgraceful  as  they  appear,  are  nevertheless 
true.  They  have  been  published  time  and  again,  and  can  be 
attested  by  many  of  the  most  respectable  citizens  of  that  county. 

The  Senator  had  many  causes  of  complaint  against  me ; 
among  others,  one  well  known  to  many  of  the  first  gentlemen 
of  Texas  now  living,  to  wit — of  his  swindling  me  out  of  my 
cloak,  and  General  Santa  Anna  out  of  his  gold  snuff-box.  The 
circumstances  of  this  transaction  are  these :  1836,  during  the 


64: 

session  of  the  first  congress  of  the  republic,  then  sitting  at 
Columbia  on  the  Brazos,  President  Houston  begged  me  to  give 
him  a  valuable  cloak,  which  I  had  just  received  from  New 
Orleans,  stating  that  he  was  greatly  in  need  of  one,  which  I 
cheerfully  did.  The  following  day  he  visited  the  prisoner, 
General  Santa  Anna,  then  confined  twelve  miles  distant  at 
Orizimbo.  Spying  in  the  hands  of  the  prisoner  a  luxurious 
gold  snuff-box,  valued  at  more  than  a  thousand  dollars,  he 
placed  upon  the  prisoner's  shoulders  the  cloak  of  which  he 
(Houston)  had  that  day  begged  of  me  for  his  own  use.  This 
favor  done  to  the  prisoner,  with  the  copious  admiraton  on  the 
part  of  Houston  of  said  snuff-box,  the  prisoner,  in  gen- 
tleman courtesy,  could  not  do  less  than  to  offer  it  to  him  in 
return.  Thus  he  received  this,  among  other  bribes,  of  the 
President  of  Mexico,  in  violation  of  his  oath  and  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  Republic.  I  ask  now  of  the  Senator,  Where  is  the 
snuff-box  ?  Has  he  sold  it,  as  he  did  the  prisoner's  saddle  ;  or 
has  he  got  it  secreted  from  public  view,  because  to  receive  and 
hold  it  thus,  was  in  violation  of  his  oath  and  the  constitution. 
The  further  facts  are  these  :  No  sooner  had  President  Houston 
been  inaugurated,  and  even  before,  than  he  visited  the  prisoner, 
got  a  glimpse  of  the  snuff-box,  and  returned  to  Columbia  and 
begged  of  me  my  cloak,  as  a  gentlemanly  pretext  by  which  he 
could  get  the  prisoner's  snuff-box.  At  this  time  he  also  com- 
menced a  negotiation  with  the  prisoner  for  his  release — (see 
pages  111,  116,  and  134  to  145,  inclusive,  of  the  Journals  of 
the  House  of  Representatives).  It  was  determined,  by  a  vote 
21  to  5,  inexpedient  to  release  the  prisoner ;  yet,  in  violation 
of  this  expression  of  the  Congress,  President  Houston  had  con- 
summated a  plan,  and  at  that  time  was  carrying  it  into  effect,  by 
which  he  did  so  smuggle  the  prisoner  out  of  the  country.  Few 
will  believe  that  Houston  was  so  stupendous  an  ass,  as  to  sup- 
pose that  Santa  Anna's  promises  would  hold  beyond  the  bounds 
of  Texas.  Houston's  motives,  then,  in  acting  in  violation  to  the 
vote  of  the  Congress,  and  the  public  sentiment  of  the  country, 
must  have  been  strongly  mercenary,  as  have  been  repeatedly 
charged  upon  him. 

Another  reason  for  the  Senator's  dislike  to  me  has  been  my 
uncompromising  hostility  to  the  demoralizing  American  system 


65 

of  divorce.  From  earliest  manhood,  in  every  legislature  in 
which  I  have  served,  I  have  opposed  this  system  of  prostitu- 
tion, as  destructive  of  morals  and  good  society.  I  have  had 
occasion  to  refer  to  the  Senator  himself  for  repudiating  his 
former  wives  with  as  much  indifference  as  he  did  his  honest 
debts,  or  as  little  compunction  as  Henry  the  Eighth.  I  crave 
pardon  for  speaking  of  Henry  and  the  Senator  in  the  same 
paragraph — the  hyena  and  the  mink  resemble  as  well. 

The  Senator  says,  that  of  the  "sixty-seven  gallant  brave 
men"  who  fell  in  the  Mier  Expedition,  only  the  seventeen 
decimated  claim  my  special  sympathy.  "  How  does  he  account 
for  the  loss  of  the  other  fifty  f"  I  refer  the  Senator  to  the 
following  extract  from  my  work,  which  he  says  he  "  has  read 
so  particularly."  ^QQ  pages  369  to  72,  inclusive: — 

"  Let  us  now  turn  to  inquire  after  the  main  body  of  our  countrymen — 
prisoners ;  and  we  do  so  with  feelings  of  mournful  sorrow,  with  a  heart  over- 
whelmed with  sadness.  We  go  back  to  the  prisons  of  San  Luis  Potosi,  and 
find  them  covered  with  rags  and  filth,  loaded  with  vermin,  and  worn  down 
with  hunger  and  all  the  multiplied  cruelties  of  their  captors.  We  trace  their 
bloody  path  south  three  hundred  miles,  through  the  scorching  plains  of 
Mexico,  by  the  unburied  bones  of  many  noble  souls  who  sunk  under  a  task 
more  than  human.  We  see  the  brave  and  dauntless  Cameron  taken  out  upon 
this  path  and  murdered  for  no  other  cause  than  his  bravery.  We  see  the 
remainder  herded  together  like  beasts  of  burden,  and  driven  forth  into  the 
streets  with  sticks  and  bayonets  by  brutal  overseers,  as  scavengers  of  filth 
too  horrible  to  contemplate.  We  see  their  manly  frames  worn  down  by  an 
insufficient  allowance  of  the  offal  of  a  rotten  population.  As  the  opposite 
plate  will  show,  which  was  drawn  from  life  by  our  indefatigable  fellow  pris- 
oner, Charles  M'Laughlin,  we  see  them  heavily  ironed,  working  upon  a 
pavement  in  front  of  the  archbishop's  palace  at  Tacubaya ;  and  what  was 
still  more  grating  to  their  feelings,  was  to  be  gazed  upon  from  their  coaches, 
by  the  yellow,  pepper-eating,  demi-savages,  as  if  they  had  been  so  many  hye- 
nas. We  trace  most  of  the  survivors,  naked  and  emaciated,  two  hundred 
miles  east,  to  the  dark,  cold  dungeons  of  Perote ;  the  balance  to  San  Juan  de 
Ulloa,  to  be  offered  up  as  a  certain  sacrifice  to  the  vomito,  that  universal  ma- 
laria of  death-.  We  follow  around  the  massive  castle  walls  of  Perote  upon  the 
north,  and  in  the  bottom  of  the  great  ditch  find  newly-stirred  earth.  Here, 
underneath  the  loose  sand,  without  a  plank  to  cover  their  bones,  or  a  stone  to 
mark  the  place — without  the  last  sad  rights  of  burial,  in  a  spot  not  only  un- 
consecrated,  but  cursed  by  a  fanatical  priesthood,  lie  the  remains  of  the  best 
spirits  of  our  country.  Here,  in  a  foreign  land,  in  a  priest-ridden  nation,  and 
in  full  view  of  the  eternal  snows  of  Orazaba,  repose  the  bones  of  fathers, 

5 


66 

brothers,  husbands,  and  sons  of  Texians — here  we  helped  to  deposite  Booker 
and  Jackson,  Trapnal  and  Crews,  Saunders,  Gray,  Trimble,  and  a  long  list  of 
others.  Peace  to  their  ashes,  and  a  nation's  gratitude  to  their  memories ! 
But,  oh !  how  the  heart  sickens  at  perfidy  the  most  unparalleled,  when  we 
trace  those  bloody  murders,  starvation,  and  deaths  to  the  President  of  our 
own  country!  I  would  to  Gor!  that  a  due  regard  to  truth,  as  well  as  justice 
to  the  memories  of  these  brave  men,  would  allow  me  to  throw  the  mantle  of 
eternal  darkness  over  the  sequel ;  if  so,  I  would  bury  this  horrible  conclusion 
in  lasting  oblivion  for  my  country's  credit.  It  is,  however,  my  task  to  regis- 
ter this  bloody  tale,  and  I  have  no  option  but  in  truth  ;  and  when  President 
Houston  has  been  charged  as  the  cause  of  the  sufferings  and  murder  of  our 
countrymen,  for  our  country's  honor  it  has  been  too  clearly  proven.  (See 
Appendix,  Nos.  2  and  6.) 

"  We  still  look  after  the  surviving  half  of  the  brave  band  of  Mier,  and  find 
them  in  the  cheerless  cells  of  Perote,  living  skeletons,  without  clothing  enough 
to  hide  their  nakedness ;  and  what  language  do  we  hear  from  them  ?  Though 
they  feel  mortified  and  indignant  at  their  President's  denunciation  of  them, 
and  his  Heartless  usurpation  of  the  laws  of  their  Congress,  in  withholding 
their  supplies,  yet  there  is  but  one  sentiment,  one  language  among  them,  and 
that  is  *  the  honor  and  liberty  of  their  country?  At  all  times,  all  occasions, 
and  under  all  circumstances,  when  hunger  has  pressed  them  most,  when  death 
made  no  sham  visits  to  their  gloomy  abodes,  boldly  did  they  publish  this  sen- 
timent. Time  after  time  did  they  write  home  to  their  countrymen,  'Let  no 
consideration  of  us  forfeit  your  country's  honor.  Let  us  rot  in  these  dungeons 
ere  you  concede"  one  inch  to  these  colored  barbarians.' " 

The  Senator,  while  known  to  be  a  physical  coward,  is  said 
to  be  a  man  of  moral  courage.  To  some  extent  this  is  true. 
Moral  courage  to  change  his  politics  without  reason.  Moral 
courage  to  commit,  in  the  daily  practices  of  life,  the  vilest  in- 
decencies. Moral  courage,  under  senate  protection,  to  fulmi- 
nate numerous  falsehoods  against  the  best  men  in  the  country. 
Moral  courage  to  commit  perjury  in  open  court,  as  is  known  to 
Governor  J.  Pinckney  Henderson,  and  other  gentlemen  in 
Texas.  Moral  courage  to  play  saint  and  sinner,  thief  and 
liar,  without  the  change  of  countenance,  or  the  quickening  of 
a  pulsation.  Moral  courage  to  break  a  seal  or  steal  a  dollar. 
Yet,  Senator,*  President,  Preacher,  Big  Drunk,  General 
Sam  Houston,  is  an  extraordinary  man.  It  is  impossible,  in 
the  limits  of  this  reply,  that  I  can  do  him  full  justice ;  and 
having  much  material  still  on  hand,  it  is  due  to  the  public  that 
I  should  give  a  faithful  account  of  his  life  cmd  doings,  in  which 
I  shall  take  him,  without  fear  or  favor  from  his  "  BIG  DKTHSTK  " 


67 

administration  of  his  Cherokee  wigwam,  to  his   senatorial 
charlatanry. 

I  come  now  to  the  most  pleasant  part  of  this  defence — it  is 
to  ask  pardon,  both  of  the  Senate  and  the  public,  for  the  use  of 
language,  while  in  every  instance  true,  yet  mortifying,  deeply 
mortifying,  to  myself  for  its  necessity.  I  have  been  driven  to 
its  use  by  a  tissue  of  falsehoods,  malicious,  vindictive,  fiend- 
ish, which  has  no  other  foundation  in  truth  than  the  ipse  dixit 
of  a  Senator,  the  most  mendacious  who  ever  disgraced  your 
high  body.  I  am  willing  that  the  Senate  and  public  shall 
judge  whether  there  has  been  a  necessity  for  language  on  my 
part,  thus  harsh,  though  true.  To  apply  the  ordinary  lash  to 
the  hide  of  the  rhinoceros,  would  be  as  futile  as  "darting 
straws  against  the  wind."  I  have  been  compelled  to  use  the 
rasp. 

I  am,  very  respectfully, 

THOMAS  J.  GKEEK 


